


Chance Meeting Part 2

by shelielaff



Series: Harry Potter and the Chance Meeting [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Friendship/Love, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-26
Updated: 2015-10-28
Packaged: 2018-02-10 13:12:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 21
Words: 46,031
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2026386
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shelielaff/pseuds/shelielaff
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Harry and Draco are now in their second year at Hogwarts, how is their friendship changing? Second part in the chance meeting series.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. And now we wait

** And now we wait. **

It was not a fun summer, not at all, fun did not even come close. Harry was miserable, he had been cooped up and locked up most of the summer and Hedwig had received the same treatment, she was not happy with him and often protested loudly which only served to get him in to more trouble. The other downside was that due to Hedwig been locked away the moment he had stepped back through the door at number 4 Privet Drive he had been unable to owl his friends. His school things had been locked away in his old cupboard, he had been unable to do any of his required reading of homework. Harry could only imagine the look on the faces of Draco and Hermione when they realise he had done nothing all summer, but he didn’t want to think of Draco and Hermione, it hurt when he did leaving a hollow feeling deep inside his chest. It was half way through summer and he had not heard a word from either of them or come to think of it from anyone, it had hurt more and more with each passing day as he felt even more neglected but today, well today he had held a little hope, but still nothing, today was his 12th birthday, he had known the Dursley’s would forget he would have put money on it, but his friends, Draco? He just didn’t understand, had he done something wrong?

‘Boy’ Uncle Vernon spluttered breaking Harry from his thoughts.

‘Boy are you listening?’

Harry sighed and once again repeated the line he had recited over and over for the entire week previously;

‘I’ll be in my room, making no noise and pretending I’m not there.’

.......

Later that evening Harry retreated to his room to begin pretending that he was not there and only just managed not to shout out in surprise at what was waiting for him there.

......

Draco’s summer was actually going quite well so far, his father had been distracted and preoccupied with something or other; he had been spending long hours alone in his study and Draco had caught him muttering to himself on several occasions, but he honestly did not care what the idiot was up to as long as it kept him away from his mother.

In fact there was only one thing that was disrupting not entirely unpleasant summer and that one thing was Harry. Draco had owled Harry at least once a day since the beginning of summer, but he had not heard a word from him all summer, he had owled letter after letter after letter and received no reply, after the first two weeks Draco had begun to sink into a sort of depression, once again he let his thoughts drift to the possibility that Harry had given up on their friendship. One day nearing the end of July, (Harry’s birthday Draco thought sadly) Pansy had decided to visit noticing Draco becoming more and more withdrawn with each owl they exchanged. Listening as Draco lamented about the Gryffindor’s lack of contact and grumbling for at least the 7th time about the boys birthday present he refused to send Pansy started to lose her patience;

‘Have you any idea what you sound like Draco.’

‘A Hufflepuff,’ Draco grumbled and threw himself dramatically on to the sofa behind him. Pansy chuckled, ‘Yep, it’s adorable,’ she said swiftly ducking out of the way of the thrown cushion that had hurtled in her direction,

‘Seriously though Draco, is he just ignoring you?’

Draco sat up abruptly and stared at Pansy as though she had just declared undying love for Ronald Weasley, ‘What do you mean?’

‘Well, if it’s just you he’s not replying to then we have problems, but say Granger has not heard from him either, well that can not be seen to be about you surely.’ She reasoned. The blonde boy stared at her then stood and stalked off in search of the family owl, Pansy swore she heard him mumble something that sounded distinctly like, ‘I am such an idiot.’

......

Hermione’s reply was almost instant,

_Draco_

_I am so happy to hear from you I have wanted to contact you but was unsure as to how I would be received. I have been really worried, I have not heard anything from Harry all summer and neither has Ronald, but now hearing that he has not even contacted you has me even more concerned. I will do my best to find out what I can._

_Take Care_

_H.G_

Draco re-read the odd looking piece of lined parchment that Hermione had sent, he closed his eyes and sat back with a groan, ‘Draco?’ Pansy asked, without a word he passed her the parchment. Pansy’s eyes widened as she read the note, ‘Oh Draco,’ she said, ‘I’m sure he’s fine,’ Draco turned his head away from her and stared unseeingly out of the window, desperately holding back his tears that threatened to spill. Merlin only knew what Harry had gone through this summer, it killed him to think of Harry in pain.

‘Draco?’ Pansy tried, when again, she got no response from her blonde friend, she turned and stalked over to the fireplace, taking floo powder from the green plot on the fireplace and kneeling down called out, ‘Zabini Manor.’ Pansy pushed her face in to the flames, after a few minutes Pansy withdrew her head and stepped back just as Blaise stepped out from the floo. Without a word to any of them he took the weird parchment from where Pansy had placed it, he located a quill and turned the parchment over, in elegant handwriting he simply wrote;

_What can we do?_

_B.G and P.P and D.M_

Blaise rolled the parchment up and made a strange clicking noise deep inside his throat, within seconds a large black owl appeared in front of him, Blaise held out his arm for the beautiful bird, ‘Hey Hermes,’ he greeted the Malfoy family owl, ‘Can you take this to Hermione Granger for us please?’ Hermes clicked in response , spread her wings and left the room.

‘What did you write?’ muttered Draco from behind the arm he had thrown across his face, Blaise looked at his friend with a look of sympathy in his eyes, it was obvious to anyone with half a brain that Draco cared deeply for the Gryffindor. Blaise went to sit down next to Draco and placed a hand on the blonde’s shoulder, ‘ I just asked if there was anything we can do,’ Draco surprised Blaise by laughing, ‘We are just kids what can we do?’

Blaise shrugged, ‘I don’t know but anything is worth a try.’

‘Dobby,’ Pansy called. The Malfoy’s house elf appeared, he seemed genuinely upset at Draco’s distressed state and was wringing his hands together,

‘What can Dobby do for Masters and Miss?’

‘Drinks elf, Master Draco is not feeling himself.’

With a look at Draco a crack sounded through the air and Dobby was gone.

‘I’m ok really,’ said Draco sitting up, ‘ I felt faint and a little unwell, nothing serious no need to fuss.’ Pansy and Blaise shared a look but did not say anything.

Dobby returned with the drinks and set them on a small table without a word, he bowed so low that his long nose touched the floor beneath him and then he was gone. Draco had never seen the elf leave so quickly, it was almost like he had somewhere important to be , which was ridiculous, he was an elf.

The three Slytherin’s sat in tense but companionable silence waiting for the return of Hermes. They waited for about an hour before the bird soared in through the open window and landed in front of Draco, he took the parchment from him and fed the black owl a treat from a bowl on his left and unrolled the note:

_Draco, Blaise and Pansy_

_Try not to worry, I do not think that there is any much we could do. However, on that note Ronald has informed me that he and the twins, (to quote him) ‘Have a genius idea,’ as much as i doubt that , he unfortunately would not divulge anymore to me, he says he will owl me in the morning, when I know, you all will, I promise._

_And now we wait._

_H.G_

Draco groaned and ran his hand over his face, he did not like that Harry’s fate was in the hands of the Weasel and the clones, but, he conceded that anything was better than his relatives. Draco handed the parchment to Blaise who read it with a raised eyebrow, he handed the note to Pansy and watched as her expression mirrored his own. Pansy sighed and looked at Blaise, ‘Sleepover?’ she asked

‘Sleepover,’ he confirmed with a nod.

......

It had been a long night, Draco had not slept and had been snapping and sneering at anyone who dared approach. Blaise and Pansy had long since given up trying to reason with him, being Draco’s childhood friends they had stayed over at the Manor many times and they each had a room that they could call their own in Draco’s own wing of the manor. Tonight they had forgone their usual comfort on favour of staying to support their blonde friend, though each vicious remark made them regret their choice more and more, however they stayed, they knew and understood that he was worried but it did not stop them wanting to hex him in to oblivion each time he opened his mouth.

Draco was currently wearing a hole in his very expensive carpet and shooting daggers with his eyes at his two friends who had fallen asleep curled up at either end of a long black sofa that dominated one wall of his bedroom. He was about to call a house elf to dump ice cold water on the sleeping pair when a familiar snowy owl flew in through the open window that he had refused to close just in case. Draco felt his heartbeat quicken with excitement and anticipation as he untied the roll of parchment from Hedwig’s leg. He absently scratched the owl on top of its head and retrieved an owl treat from a drawer in his desk. He unravelled the parchment and smiled at the sight of the familiar untidy scrawl;

_Drake_

_I can’t write much, I’m hiding so I can send this so I have to be quick, but just letting you know I’m ok. I’ sorry I didn’t write but we were locked up. I know you were writing (bloody house elf) anyway we are off to Diagon Alley on Wednesday to meet Mione, I’ ok, will try and write properly soon._

_Miss you_

_Harry x_

Draco read the letter with increasingly widening eyes, he was left with more questions than answers, but, he thought, at least he knew that Harry was ok, but his eyes kept returning to two words, ‘locked up,’ we? Who was we? Locked up? What did he mean? He needed to get to the bottom of this , then something else caught his eye, Elf? What elf? Muggles do not have house elves! ‘One thing is for sure,’ thought Draco as he summoned an elf to throw water on his friends, ‘come hell or high water he was going to Diagon Alley on Wednesday.’

......

** A/N : So we have now started Chamber of Secrets, hmm I wonder what Draco will make of Ginny?? **


	2. Green-eyed monster.

** Green-eyed Monster. **

Draco screwed his eyes up tightly and rubbed them hard with the tips of his fingers, he waited a second, not knowing whether he wanted it to be true or not, then opened his eyes, blinking as they readjusted to the dull light. He could not believe it, he blinked one more time, just to be sure, but no, there he was, as sure as Draco’s chest was rising and falling with each breath he took, Harry Potter was there, trying and failing to hide in a dusty corner of Borgin and Burkes. A million and one things crossed Draco’s mind at that moment, he really did not want his father to see his Gryffindor friend, he however wanted to speak to him so much if only to admonish him for wandering around Knockturn Alley and alone for that matter, did the boy simply not know how dangerous it was, especially for him. 

‘Father, I am off to choose an early birthday present.’ He said looking over his shoulder at the tall blonde wizard who had followed him in to the shop.

‘Mmmmm.’ Was the only reply he received. Draco watched as his father strode over to the counter to begin his business transactions that had brought them here this morning.  He knew from experience  that his father would not be the slightest bit interested in what he was doing so he carefully made his way over to where Harry was trying to climb in to a large chest.  Draco sighed, his Godfather had been right Harry just seemed to fall in to trouble wherever he looked. At that moment Harry looked up and caught the silver eyes staring at him in shock, ‘wonderful,’ thought Harry, ‘I’ve not seen him for weeks  and now, when I do see him, I’m lost, covered in soot and wearing broken glasses.’ Harry watched as Draco approached him with a finger pressed over his lips willing him to stay quiet. Harry felt his eyes wander over the boy in front of him with an appraising look. Draco had changed since Harry had last seen him, Harry studied the blonde boy carefully as he approached him, the most obvious change was his height, Draco had grown a good couple of inches so now Harry had to tilt his neck all the more to look into those silver eyes. On closer inspection Harry noticed other differences, he could see that the shoulders of the blonde had broadened slightly, his face was also less rounded making his long jaw line  and strong features more pronounced, Harry thought with appreciation that these changes suited Draco very much. Harry shivered as he felt hot breath on his ear and noticed another change as a considerably deeper voice whispered to him, ‘What the hell are you doing in here?’

Harry’s heart dropped, all the excitement and stir of emotions he had felt upon seeing the blonde boy evaporated at the taller boys tone. Why wasn’t Draco happy to see him? He turned green eyes up to silver questioningly, unable to hide the hurt within. Draco softened as their eyes met, ‘It’s not safe here Harry, I’m just concerned and ...’ Draco took a step back and his nose scrunched a little, ‘Why are you such a mess?

Draco wasn’t the only one who had changed over the summer, as Draco took in his friend’s dishevelled and soot covered appearance he noticed that Harry’s features  had altered, they had become more defined with the beginnings of a strong jaw line, Draco’s eyes lingered over Harry’s jaw for a second or two longer than necessary, Harry hadn’t grown in height or not that Draco could notice. Draco’s breath caught in his throat as he heard Harry’s now deeper voice for the first time,

‘I’m lost, I have no idea where I am, I am supposed to be shopping for school supplies with the Weasley’s and meeting Hermione, and, well, apparently floo travel does not suit me.’ Harry said looking down at himself. Draco pressed a hand to his own face and sighed, with his hand still covering his eyes he asked,

‘Did you speak clearly when you stepped in to the floo?’

Harry pinked a little, ‘I think I choked a little.’

Draco removed his hand and watched as Harry scuffed his toes on the floor, ‘So, I take it you have no idea where you are then?’ Draco whispered with a glance over to his father who luckily was still very much occupied, ‘You’re in Knockturn Alley.’ Draco stated and then waited for a look of horror to cross Harry’s face. After a second, when no such look had happened, Draco seemed to remember who he was talking to and sighed, ‘It’s a bit darker around here than what you are used to, and you should not really be seen around here.’

Harry looked at Draco, ‘Why are you here then?’  Draco inclined his head slightly towards the back of the shop and Harry’s eyes fell on a very tall, very handsome blonde wizard. The almost white hair, the regal air in which he held himself and the silver eyes that flashed as he spoke to the small man in front of him told Harry that this man had to be Draco’s father. Harry’s eyes roved over the older wizards face following every defined and structured line, Harry’s mouth went dry as he realised that it was extremely possible that Draco would grow to look just like this wizard, Harry felt a strange little knot form in his stomach, as he caught Draco’s eyes once more, he hoped with all his heart that that was where the similarities ended. Draco’s father may be stunningly beautiful from the outside but Harry knew he was extremely ugly from the inside. Draco had watched as Harry had regarded his father with wide, curious eyes  and wondered what he was thinking. Before he could ask he heard his name called , he looked at Harry, ‘ I have to go Harry please stay safe.’

.......

Harry had been found by Hagrid and then delivered safely in to the arms of Mr and Mrs Weasley who had fixed his glasses and cleaned his robes respectively. He had had an eventful experience in Gringott’s  and was apparently now on his way to meet a famous wizard called Gilderoy Lockheart. Mrs Weasley,  Ginny and Hermione were giggling and whispering and gushing about the wizard, Ron and the other male Weasley’s were grumbling and rolling their eyes, Harry was just intrigued.

.......

Harry stared at the blonde wizard in front of him, he was mesmerised, he eyes ran over the handsome face in front of him and fell of the deep blue eyes of the adult wizard. The eyes were beautiful and Harry felt as though he could easily get lost in them, framed as they were by long thick eyelashes. The wizard had managed to choose robes that exactly matched the shade of his eyes which only served to bring more attention to them.  His silky blonde hair fell in waves framing his face and those blue eyes. Harry felt a catch in his throat, he could hear women all around him giggling, he could see them primping their hair and touching up their make-up. Harry understood, the man was beautiful,  Harry could not take his eyes off him, he stood elevated on a slight platform like a God, almost glowing in the light of the attention he was receiving. His smile was blinding and Harry’s eyes fell on the full, pink lips that surrounded perfect, white teeth, he unconsciously poked the tip of his tongue out to wet his lips, then, Gilderoy Lockheart began to speak and the illusion was shattered.

......

Draco stood, elbows resting on the rail in front of him, trying to affect an air of indifference as his eyes roamed over the crowd below him, he knew he was searching for a messy, raven haired Gryffindor. His father had run in to an acquaintance and once again Draco had been left to his own devices, he was sulking slightly but would never admit it. He hid a smile as he spotted the familiar boy in the crowds waiting to meet the bloody fame hungry Lockheart. A frown crossed Draco’s face as a familiar red tinge appeared on Harry’s face, he quickly followed his gaze. Draco’s eyes narrowed dangerously  as he realised who it was that had caught Harry’s undivided attention in this way, that bloody idiot Lockheart, Harry was blushing at Lockheart. Draco felt a knot in the pit of his stomach as a feeling unlike anything he had ever felt before appeared from deep inside him. He was so inexplicably angry, his eyes flashed as he balled his fists. His eyes rested, once again, on the Gryffindor as he saw Harry pass his tongue over his lips, eyes never leaving Lockheart’s face. Draco felt a rage build up inside him and he wanted to scream. What the hell was Harry playing at , and why was it bothering him so much, before another thought could cross his mind a strong hand clamped down on his shoulder, ‘Draco , are we ready?’

Draco composed himself and looked up in to the steely grey eyes of his father, he glanced back at Harry who was now having his photograph taken with the wizard and hid a small sigh, ‘Ready father.’

They turned together and walked down the spiral staircase to the lower floor. When they reached the bottom, Draco found himself face to face with Harry. Draco looked in to those green eyes he knew so well, he felt a small amount of his anger fade, but not enough;

‘Famous Harry Potter,’ he spat, ‘Can’t even go into a book shop without making the front page.’

Before Harry could bring himself to respond a small red-headed girl stepped in front of him and glared up at Draco, ‘Leave him alone’ she demanded with as much force as she could muster.

‘Got yourself a girlfriend Potter?’ He asked.

Draco watched as confusion swiftly followed by hurt passed across Harry’s eyes. Draco had not been able to help himself, first Lockheart then this tiny ginger creature. He had gotten so used to having Harry’s attention to himself and now, every where he looked there was someone in his way. He glared at the girl in front of him, he now realised, looking at her that she was yet another Weasley, a  she-weasel he dubbed her. The way she had stepped  in front of Harry to protect him, the way he had done himself on more than one occasion, and the glint in her eye, told him all he needed to know, she wanted Harry for her own. ‘Well,’ thought Draco to himself,’ bring it on Weaselette, you have one hell of a fight on your hands.’

 

 


	3. Missing??

The first whistle of the Hogwarts express pierced the air, children and families were milling around, hurried hugs were given, luggage and pets changed hands, barked instructions and warnings to behave, like any other time, but something was wrong. Draco could feel it in the air, something not quite right, something missing, he just could not say what. His sharp eyes narrowed as they moved across the platform around him, taking in the usual sights, nervous first years up to  calm and collected seventh years but he could not stop the feeling of unease that was growing inside him. His eyes fell on a family of red heads a little further down the platform to his right, his eyes became dangerous slits as they landed on the small ginger Weaslette, her big stupid eyes wide as she started dumbstruck at her mother. There was no way she was competition, Draco simply would not allow it, Harry was his that was the beginning and end of it all, she would learn one way or the other. His attention was drawn to the older female Weasley and immediately realised that something was wrong, her eyes were wide and the look of panic was etched on to her face, fear evident on those bright eyes. Her husband was talking loudly with the conductor, arms thrashing around him in wild gesture, his face as red as the hair of his many children. Draco took in each Weasley’s face in turn trying to work out what was going on, not that he cared, the oldest Weasley child was wearing an impassive expression although his lips were pinched firmly together, the clones were whispering feverishly together, gesturing with their hands. A crowd was starting to form around them, but it wasn’t until Draco saw Hermione making her way dutifully towards the red-headed family that Draco realised what was wrong with the picture in front of him, there was one Weasley too few, and, his eyes widened at the realisation, there was a distinct lack of Potter. His eyes quickly danced back across the platform in case he had somehow missed the two boys, he did not see them anywhere. As his eyes once again fell to the Weasley’s he watched in shock as Mr Weasley began pounding on the brick wall that was supposedly the way back to King’s Cross Station, except that it wasn’t, right at that moment it was a solid brick wall. Two witches surrounding a now frantic Mrs Weasley and gathered her in to their arms as witch after wizard fired spell after spell at the solid brink wall, nothing had any effect. Suddenly the second whistle of the train pierced the air, the students needed to be on board, the train was preparing to leave, a few uncaring students clambered aboard without ever looking back. Mrs Weasley was attempting to convince her four children and Hermione to get on the train, in the end she barked out an order that silenced the entire platform and the five students climbed sullenly on to the train. Draco watched them, he hated not knowing what was going on, he wanted to know where Harry was, what had happened? He wanted to go over and ask, he knew he couldn’t, he knew he never would be able to and that thought hurt. There was a small cough from behind Draco and he turned to look in to the steely grey eyes of his father who was blinking at him expectantly,

‘Goodbye Father.’ Draco said and then boarded the train.

The last thing he saw as the train pulled away from the platform was a very panicked looking Mrs Weasley crumpling in to her husband’s arms.

............

Draco was caught between anger and panic, he was not entirely sure who he was angry at, he was angry with himself for being angry and panicking, he was angry at Harry for not being on the train and most of all he was angry at the bloody idiot Weasley because this was assuredly his fault. The panic was obvious, it always was, it was Harry, not knowing where Harry was or even if he was ok, he had gotten used to this feeling when it came to Harry it just didn’t mean he had to like it.

Pansy and Blaise had also noticed the absence of the Gryffindor’s on the platform and knew it would be sitting well with a certain blonde haired friend of theirs. They looked around the compartments until they found him sitting, arms folded across his chest and staring out of the window. Without a word they took a seat either side of him as though they were taking silent guard of their friend, Pansy sighed inwardly, ‘Surely the Gryffindor was beginning to be a bit more trouble than he was worth.’ She would never say that to Draco of course she valued their friendship too much. She had known Draco his whole life, their mothers often arranging playdates and talking of a future marriage, Pansy scoffed at the thought, she had known where Draco’s thoughts on that matter lay for a long time, he on the other hand had no idea. Pansy looked at her friend out of the corner of her eye, she had never seen him like this before, there was something about this Gryffindor, something different. Pansy was lost in her own thoughts when Crabbe and Goyle came stumbling in to the compartment, Goyle opened his mouth as though he was about to say something when Pansy shot him a look that would have killed instantly if looks had the power of doing that. The two boys plonked themselves ungracefully in to the seat opposite the trio, not daring to ask why they all looked so serious.

................

The journey had continued much the same, Draco had begun to get restless and had no idea how he could get answers, no one dared to speak to him and had growled  viciously when the witch with the sweets had dared to slide open their door and ask did they want anything. The surprise was evident on her face when two of her best customers turned her down with a small shake of the head. Blaise had had enough, he knew Draco needed answers, perhaps he could go and bully a first year in to telling him what had happened, what he did know is that he needed to move, the atmosphere was killing, without looking back he stood and left the compartment and strode with purpose down the train. After a minute or two Blaise was brought to an abrupt halt as he was met with the rather unusual sight of a Gryffindor crawling around on all fours in front of him, currently the boy was facing away from him and Blaise walked silently up behind the shorter boy so that they were almost toe-to-toe. The boy on the floor began to turn and stopped suddenly when he caught sight of the pair of legs that were blocking his way. Slowly the boy raised his head and gave a small squeak of fear as the tall-dark Slytherin came in to view. Blaise smirked and raised an eyebrow, arms folded across his chest, ‘Longbottom?’ he asked. Neville squeaked again and mumbled something, face redder than any Weasley’s hair,

‘Sorry I didn’t quite catch that.’

Neville mumbled again and sat back on his heels, Blaise caught the words, ‘lost’ and ‘toad’

‘Ah the elusive Trevor.’

‘You know his name?’ Neville asked, confused.

‘I think you will find our whole year is aware of the existence of said toad Longbottom.’

If it was possible Neville’s blush deepened, he realised with embarrassment that he was still on his knees in front of Blaise Zabini. He had seen him around Hogwarts and before that he had seen him at the occasional gathering, but he had never spoken to him before today.

Blaise looked down at the blushing boy in front of him, he had no idea what came over him, but at the sight of the clumsy boy on his knees in front of him blushing, looking all sweet and innocent and before he had had time to think about what he was doing, he had offered the small boy a hand to get up.

Neville regarded the offered hand as though it was a lion about to maim him, but, realising that there was no one else about to witness any humiliation that would doubtless come his way, he summoned every ounce of his Gryffindor courage and placed his hand in Blaise’s, to his immense surprise and relief the warm hand closed around his own and he was pulled to his feet.

...........

It was a little while later when Blaise returned to his compartment. Draco’s head snapped up when Blaise entered, he cast a glance at Crabbe and Goyle, then looked back up to Blaise, he had to be careful what he said.

‘Any news on what that  awful Weasley woman was screeching about on the platform?’

Blaise raised an eyebrow and replied in a cool drawl that almost equalled Draco’s own,

‘Well according to my sources the entrance to the platform had sealed itself shut behind her trapping Potter and Weasley on the other side,  there was no possible way that they could get through.’

As he spoke Blaise watched his friends face for any subtle changes that would betray his feelings, although a slight crease in his brow was the only flickering sign of concern Blaise knew he was troubled, ‘He’s Potter I don’t doubt he will bounce back,’ Blaise finished with a slight effort to ease the blonde’s worry.

..........

Draco could not concentrate on the sorting that was taking place, he clapped absent mindedly whenever he heard the word Slytherin shouted by the sorting hat but his eyes never left the Gryffindor table in front of him. There was still no sign of Harry.

...........

Draco was in a foul temper, not helped by the fact that he had not slept again with worrying about Harry. His usual bowl of cornflakes was growing soggy under his scornful gaze as he stabbed at it murderously with his spoon. Every few seconds his eyes gravitated towards the doors, never seeing what he needed to, or, more to the point, who he needed to. He was just about to look away again when the door swung open and in strode Ron Weasley with a stupid grin plastered across his face, Draco’s eyes immediately fell on the smaller boy who was following closely behind. Harry had a huge grin on his face, and Draco felt himself relax, it was obvious that Harry, although evidently tired, was in one piece. Draco watched as Harry’s eyes roved across the Slytherin table quite obviously searching for him. Draco managed to suppress a groan at Harry’s not so subtle search , whilst also noting a growing heat in the pit of his stomach at the small boys obvious need to see him. They locked eyes for a brief second, Harry’s eyes sparkled as his smile, if possible, grew even wider, Draco flashed him a quick smile back and then stared down at his cornflakes. Before Draco could look up again the sound of flapping wings signalled the arrival of the morning post, Draco had barely glanced at his own letters all his questions about Harry’s whereabouts the previous day and how he had got to school were answered as Mrs Weasley’s screeching toned filled The Great Hall. Draco’s eyes widened as he learned of their escapades, he really would have to talk to Harry about personal safety issues. Then the end of Mrs Weasley’s Howler caught his attention, ‘Ginny,’ what sort of name was that, bloody ridiculous if you asked him, Draco snorted causing him to receive a horrified look from Pansy who sitting by his side.

His foul mood was back, if he had sat and thought about it then he would have realised, that of course another Weasley was bound to end up in Gryffindor, but to hear it confirmed to him that the little Weaselette would be sharing a common room with Harry had set him in a rage so he dutifully began murdering his breakfast once more.

‘Draco, are you not opening  your mail this morning dear?’ Pansy asked in a quiet voice while she placed a manicured finger on a piece of folded parchment  from his pile and pushed it slowly across the table to him. Draco immediately recognised the untidy scrawl and flashed Pansy a grateful smile, he unfolded the parchment which simply read:

_Long story. Tonight?_

_Missed you._

_H xx_

Draco folded the parchment with a smile and placed it carefully in to the pocket of his robes, he looked up and gave an almost imperceptible nod to the green-eyed Gryffindor who was watching him intently. They really were going to have to talk about subtlety.


	4. Two very different conversations

** Two very different Conversations.  **

Harry climbed in to his bed that night and folded his arms behind his head, crossing his legs at the ankles. He assumed that all the other boys were asleep and could hear soft snores coming from Neville’s bed, he had about an hour before he had to leave to meet Draco and he knew it was going to be a long wait. Harry closed his eyes and thought back over the summer that he had just suffered through, he had spent a lot of time alone which had given him plenty of time to think. He had changed physically over summer, not so much that it was too obvious but he had noticed. Harry had also noticed he was thinking about things differently and certainly dreaming about certain things that he had never dreamt of before, these thoughts, and the dreams that accompanied them were forever on his mind. At first Harry had tried to bury them, knowing, even at his young age that they were not quite what they should be but, eventually he had realised there was no burying them. He had been confused, wondering what they could mean, but then, Lockheart, Harry had felt the heat rising just watching the man, Harry had understood right then and there, there was something different about him.

‘Erm... Harry.’ Ron’s voice was barely above a whisper as it broke the silence.

Harry inwardly groaned as he was disturbed from his own very interesting thoughts, it crossed his mind to pretend to be asleep, but then a conversation with Ron might help pass the time.

‘Yeah,’ he whispered back.

‘erm you know... well... well... well I mean...’

‘Spit it out Ron,’ Harry sighed.

‘Well, it’s just, well I just, well.’

‘Just spit it out,’ Harry snapped completely exasperated with his less than eloquent friend.

‘Sorry Harry, jeez this is tough, look ok, you know Charlie? My brother Charlie?’

‘Yeah’ Harry replied cautiously having absolutely no idea where this was going.

‘Well, the thing about Charlie is, well...’

‘Ron, say well one more time, so help me...’

‘Sorry mate, listen, ok I’ll just say it, Charlielikesboys.’ Ron said hurriedly.

‘What?’ Harry asked, not quite sure whether he had heard right.

Ron sighed deeply, ‘Charlie likes boys’.

Harry swallowed the lump that had appeared in his throat, ‘Right?’ he said warily, now knowing exactly where this was going.

‘And you are telling me this because?’

Harry heard Ron shifting in his bed. ‘Well...’ he started,

‘Ron,’ Harry warned.

‘ Right, ok, sorry, anyway, you see, I’m telling you, right, I’m saying that it’s ok.’ Ron whispered quickly across the room.

Harry sat up, crossing his legs in front of him as he did, staring in the general direction of Ron’s bed.

‘What do you mean?’

Harry heard Ron move again and hoped he wasn’t going to come over, this was awkward enough as it was.

‘Harry, you do like boys don’t you?’ Ron asked quietly.

Harry swallowed the quickly reappearing lump in his suddenly very dry throat, he thought about what Ron was asking. Ron had asked a simple question suddenly giving voice to all those feelings that had confused him so much. Harry struggled to formulate an answer, not wanting to lie to his friend but unsure whether he wanted to voice his feelings so soon.

‘I don’t ... I mean... I think... wait how do you know?’ Harry wondered what had given him away.

‘Mate, seriously? You were drooling more than mum at Lockheart, man at one point I swear you licked your lips at the prat. Personally I don’t care a sickle you like boys, less competition for me, but seriously Harry, Lockheart, the man’s an idiot, all teeth and no sense.’ Ron grumbled and Harry could picture the grimace on his face, he stifled a chuckle.

‘Yeah I noticed that as soon as he started talking.’

Ron snorted and Harry realised with a start that he had practically just admitted to fancying Lockheart. He was very glad it was dark as he felt the heat rising in his cheeks.

‘And you really don’t care?’

‘Nah mate, and anyway you’re Harry Potter you could admit to fancying trolls and people would still fall at your feet.’

‘EEEEEEEEEEWWWW,’ whispered Harry, ‘Trolls Ron, really?’

‘Whatever you say mate, now shut up I need my beauty sleep.’

Harry smiled and lay back down, he was lucky to have Ron, and well, knowing Hermione she already knew too and he didn’t care what anyone else thought, well, no that was a lie, there was a certain blonde haired Slytherin who’s reaction mattered very much to him.

......

As Harry left the dormitory to go and meet Draco he failed to notice that the snores that had once come from Neville’s bed had stopped a long time ago.

......

Draco had arrived to the Trophy Room early as usual, he was eager to find out what on earth had been going on with Harry over the summer, and also what had happened to close the platform barrier, what on earth had been going on in Harry Potter’s life since they had last been able to spend time together? Draco had that many questions racing through his mind that he had been sorely tempted to write them down, he had almost given in but then remembered that he was a Malfoy and had an impeccable memory. He laced his fingers behind his back and paced the floor as he waited for Harry, it was not lost on him how much he looked like his father at that moment.

Draco swung around and continued his pacing, suddenly Harry’s head appeared floating in front of him, Draco would deny this until his dying day but at that moment he squealed like a small child as Harry’s appearance made him jump.  Harry had scared him, taken him by surprise, but he would never make such an undignified noise as that, he was a Malfoy for goodness sake, Harry held back a laugh and jumped and wrapped his arms around Draco’s neck.

‘So happy to see you, it’s been ages.’

Draco looked down in to the green eyes for a second before taking hold of Harry’s wrists and removing Harry’s arms from around his neck, he pulled the rest of the invisibility cloak from him and took a step back, still holding Harry’s wrists he cast his eyes over every part of him making sure Harry was in one piece.

‘I think we need to talk Harry.’

Harry gave a small smile, ‘Yeah we really do.’

Draco raised an eyebrow, he released one of Harry’s arms and led him over to their usual spot in the corner. Draco sat gracefully, crossing his legs and leaning his back against the wall, never letting go of Harry’s wrist, Harry slid down the wall next to Draco, freeing his wrist, only to lace his fingers through Draco’s. Draco looked at their joined hands for a second before Harry spoke, ‘So?’ he asked quietly,

‘So...’ continued Draco.

‘You wanted to talk.’

‘ I did, I have questions.’

‘I will try to answer them Drake.’

‘Ok, so you said we were locked up, who were we? And what do you mean by locked up?’

‘It was me and Hedwig, the Dursley’s  locked us up, Hedwig was confined to her cage and I was locked in my room, , food was pushed through a hole in the door when they remembered and my school stuff was locked away in my old cupboard, and then , well something happened so they decided to put bars on my windows.’ Harry shrugged, unable to read the expression on Draco’s face, the hand that was not joined with Harry’s was balled in to a fist. Draco decided that if there was one thing he was going to achieve in his life he was going to make those muggles pay, one way or another. He took a deep breath and looked in to Harry’s eyes, Harry was looking worriedly at him.

‘Drake, I know what you’re thinking but I’m ok, it wasn’t as bad as thinking that you didn’t care.’ Harry admitted, dropping his gaze to the floor. Draco swallowed and hooked his finger under the smaller boys chin so that the green eyed gaze met his own.

‘Of course I care, I wrote every day, sometimes twice, if i’m honest it really hurt me not getting any replies.’

It was Draco’s turn to cast his eyes down as he let go of Harry’s face.

‘That bloody elf,’ Harry muttered almost under his breath.

At this Draco’s head snapped up, ‘ That was something I’ve been meaning to mention, I did not know that muggles had house elves, and why on earth was it stealing your post?’

Harry began to explain to Draco everything that had happened to him since finding a house elf in his bedroom, ‘... and then Dobby...’

‘Wait, what?’ Draco interrupted.

‘Erm .. and then Dobby.’

‘The elf was called Dobby? Are you sure?’

‘Erm, yeah, he referred to himself in the third person an awful lot, so definitely Dobby,’

Harry watched as Draco’s eyes grew wide and he visibly paled.

‘Harry,’ he said in a hushed voice, once again hanging his head, he removed his hand from Harry’s, pulled his knees to his chest and wrapped his arms around them. Harry watched him wondering what he had said wrong.

‘Harry...’ Draco tried again, ‘Dobby is my elf, well I mean, he belongs to the Malfoy’s.’

Harry’s mouth fell open as his eyes rounded, ‘What? Wait are you sure? Could it not be another Dobby?’

Draco slowly shook his head from side to side, ‘No, all house elf names are unique until the elf dies, that was definitely my elf, and from what you were saying about the elf’s family it sounds about right,’ Draco said sullenly.

Harry placed a hand on the small of Draco’s back.

‘Don’t Harry I’m not exactly nice to him either.’

Harry sighed, ‘You’re not exactly nice to a lot of people Drake but for some reason here I am.’

Draco turned his head to look at Harry, ‘Why?’

‘Why what?’

‘Why are you here? Like you said I am not nice, there are plenty more people that are more worthy of your time, I’m sure Weasley’s sister will gladly keep you company,’ try as he might Draco could not keep the bitterness out of his voice.

Harry slowly began rubbing small circles on the Slytherin’s back,

‘You big ridiculous git,’ Harry muttered.

‘Hey,’ Draco said indignantly

‘Well you are, you know me, would I be here if I didn’t want to be?’ Harry raised an eyebrow trying his best to imitate the patented Draco Malfoy look, ‘and as for Ginny, she’s Ron’s sister, just a little kid,’ Harry shrugged, ‘I mean she’s ok and all Drake, but well, she’s not you is she.’

If it had been at all possible, Draco believed that he would be physically glowing at this point. He fought hard to reign in the smile that threatened to spread across his face but a little smirk managed to break through.

‘Some people would say that that is a good thing,’ quipped Draco.

Harry shrugged and said, matter of factly, ‘Well not me,’

That broke the mask of ice that the Slytherin wore so well as he looked at Harry with a look of joy splashed across his face. ‘You really are something special,’ Draco mused.

‘Behave Drake I get more than enough praise as it is,’ Harry said as a blush crept across his cheeks.

Draco became serious as he took Harry’s hand once more, ‘No you don’t , the boy who lived gets plenty of praise, but what I said, well that praise was for plain old Harry, my danger loving best friend.’

Harry felt his face burning,  that had to be the single nicest thing anyone had ever said to him, he knew already that he was more than just a celebrity to Draco but that had confirmed it. Harry was speechless.

‘Anyway,’ said Draco, turning his head to break the intense eye contact. ‘We should maybe try and figure out why my house elf was trying to stop you.....’

Draco stopped abruptly and turned, wide eyed, to Harry, ‘No... he wouldn’t...’

‘Erm Drake, fancy sharing?’

‘Sorry Harry, I just had a thought, Dobby was adamant that you weren’t to come back right ?’

Harry nodded, ‘Well do you think he sealed the entrance to Platform Nine and Three Quarters?’

Harry stared open mouthed at Draco, ‘Could a house elf do that?’

‘Oh yes, they have extremely powerful magic, it is entirely possible.’

‘We need to talk to Dobby?’

‘ I can talk to him at Christmas,’ as Draco spoke he noticed a look of sorrow crossing Harry’s face, ‘You ok?’

‘Yeah... it’s just that... well..’

‘Harry?’

‘Last Christmas was the best Christmas that I ever had and ... never mind,’

‘Harry?’

Green eyes met silver.

 ‘I was hoping you’d be staying,’ Harry whispered so quietly that Draco almost missed it.

Harry felt the heat rising in his cheeks and felt utterly ridiculous, why would Draco want to stay? And he most certainly did not feel what Harry felt around him, he had called him his best friend, that was it, they were friends, nothing else, he had just completely humiliated himself.

Draco saw the pain in Harry’s eyes, he hated that so much, he fought against his upbringing, he needed to let Harry see some weakness, he had the power to take away the pain; ‘Harry just so you know was probably my best Christmas too, I’m going to stay, Dobby can wait.’

Harry looked at Draco, the boy’s face was beautiful especially as it was, lit up by the moonlight streaming through the high windows. How on earth did the Slytherin think that he could even begin to prefer Ginny’s company to his own, the boy was obviously mental.  The only flaw that Harry could see in their friendship  was that he liked boys and Draco did not, but they could still be the best of friends, Harry could do that, especially for moments like this.

‘You don’t have to, it’s ok.’

‘Harry, I want to, plus I need to top the present that you got me last year,’ Draco replied with a smirk.

‘Not a chance.’ Harry smiled , ‘’Not a chance.’

 

 


	5. Draco's News

** 25\. Draco’s news. **

Harry spent a lot of time over the next few days dodging out of sight whenever he saw Gilderoy Lockheart coming down a corridor. Harder to avoid was Colin Creevey, who seemed to have memorised Harry’s timetable. He appeared everywhere and Harry was growing increasingly frustrated, he got through the week by counting down the hours until he could see Draco again.

..........

Friday night found Draco, yet again pacing the Trophy room, but this time it was due to excitement, he was a Malfoy, he was dignified, brought up to affect an air of indifference at all times no matter what, but right at that very moment Draco could not care less, outside these four walls he would act as though he didn’t care but right now he felt excited. Draco felt as though he had been transported back in time to Draco Malfoy, the small child that had not yet learned that feelings are best left hidden. Draco kept glancing at the door anxiously waiting for Harry to appear, as soon as he did Draco ran at him, he wrapped his arms around the boys waist and lifted him off his feet , spinning his around so that his legs flew out behind him. After a second Draco put him down and looked in to surprised and amused green eyes,

‘What was that about?’ Harry asked with amusement

‘I have just had the best news ever Harry, you will never guess,’ Draco’s eyes glittered with excitement,

‘What?’ Harry asked as Draco’s excitement became contagious.

‘I made the Quidditch team , I’m on the house team.’ 

Harry’s smile matched the one that was currently spread across his friends.

‘Drake that is amazing, I am so happy for you, I did not know you were trying out? You never said? Why didn’t you say?’ Harry rambled as he pulled Draco back in to a hug wrapping is arms around the taller boys neck, ‘What position?’

‘Ha you will never guess.’

‘Seeker?’

Draco looked surprised for a second  before he blinked and said, ‘Yes, yes you got it.’

Harry chuckled as Draco continued, ‘I’ll be going up against you, I can’t wait to beat you to the snitch.’

At this pronouncement Harry took a stop back, keeping his arms in their position around Draco’s neck and looked up to silver eyes and, in a serious tone stated slowly, ‘Never going to happen,’

Draco looked down in to those wonderful emerald eyes and leaned forward to touch his forehead against the Gryffindor’s  ‘ we shall see,’ he stated with a glint of challenge in his eyes.

......

The next morning Harry sorely regretted staying up talking with Draco until the early hours as he was shaken awake by a very agitated  Oliver Wood demanding he get up for Quidditch practice,

‘Oliver,’ Harry croaked, ‘It’s the crack of dawn.’

‘Exactly,’ said Wood eyes gleaming madly with enthusiasm.

......

Draco was excited as he made his way over to the pitch for his first ever Quidditch practice as part of the house team, to look at him  you would never guess how excited he actually was, his features were schooled in to indifference, however a smirk had been allowed to play on his lips. He looked up as he heard his captain grumble;

‘Bloody Lions on the pitch, let’s get rid of them.’

Draco groaned inwardly at the sight knowing a confrontation was inevitable , he was really not in the mood, he just wanted to fly, to prove his worth on the team.

Flint was currently arguing  with the Gryffindor team captain and waving around a piece of parchment that Snape had signed allowing them use of the pitch. Before he knew it  Draco was being pushed to the front of the team to be shown off as the new Slytherin seeker. He met his own Gryffindor’s eyes and they shared a small smile before becoming aware of the chaos around them. Harry flinched as Draco’s father was brought in to the conversation and watched as a dark look crossed his friends eyes reminding him of gathering storm clouds. Before anyone else could speak Ron barrelled his way across the pitch, ‘ What’s happening? Why aren’t you playing? What’s he doing here??’ Ron spluttered as he stared red faced at Draco, Harry rolled his eyes, ‘ He’s the new Slytherin Seeker.’

‘Is that a Nimbus 2001?’

Marcus Flint stepped forward shoving his broom in Ron’s face, ‘Make that seven two thousand and one’s ,’ he snapped, ‘not that you could afford even a splinter of one.’

Harry did not want this to end in a fight and turned to look at Oliver who was slowly turning red, ‘Let them have the pitch , I want breakfast and obviously they need the practice more than us,’ he said with a small smile.

‘Yeah c’mon Wood I’m wasting away here.’ Grumbled George Weasley. Just then Colin Creevey joined them on the pitch,

‘Harry, Harry what’s happening? Is it a fight Harry? Are you ok Harry? Can I do anything for you Harry? Can I take your picture Harry?’ he asked turning his big blue eyes on the older boy.

Harry sighed, ‘ Not now Colin.’ The small blonde boy looked up at Harry with an adoring smile and said dreamily, ‘Okay Harry, anything for you Harry.’

Draco was furious, who was this now? This new influx of first years were obviously going to be nothing but trouble for him, Harry was his, he couldn’t bare it, people should know,  people needed to know, he gritted his teeth and ground them in an undignified way, he hated his father, if it wasn’t for him then he could let people know exactly what would happen to them if they looked at his Harry that way, he glared at the tiny Gryffindor and tuned out the bickering around him as he thought of lots of very painful ways to torture the small boy. Harry looked at Draco and saw the anger in his eyes , but he was not even listening to Ron spluttering about the unfairness of it all, he was glaring at an oblivious Colin, what was all that about? He would have to ask later? Harry looked around him again, Fred and George were dragging Oliver back to the locker rooms and Hermione was man-handling Ron towards the castle. Harry turned to offer Draco a small smile and the Slytherin winked at him causing a warm feeling to flood the pit of Harry’s stomach.

......

The following Tuesday saw Draco staring incredulously at Harry as he explained the voice that he had heard  in detention with Lockheart.

‘Do you think I was imagining it?’

‘Do you think you were imagining it?’

‘Well.... no I definitely heard it?’

‘Well I believe you then,’ Draco said matter of factly, ‘Do you think Lockheart was lying about not hearing it?’

Harry gave a non committal shrug, ‘Dunno,’

‘Harry what have I told you about butchering the English language like that?’

Harry pouted and looked up at Draco through his eyelashes, ‘I’m sorry.’

Draco sighed dramatically, ‘Never mind, we need to figure out what you were hearing,’

‘I can’t believe that you believe me,’

Draco looked at him with a raised eyebrow, ‘Any why wouldn’t I? Would you lie to me?’

‘Of course not, I’m just sure I sound pretty insane that’s all.’ Harry shrugged again,

‘Harry,’ Draco said as he wrapped his arm around the small boy, ‘I believe you.’

......

Draco pushed his way to the front of the crowd and his eyes opened wide as he took in the sight before him, ‘Enemies of the heir beware,’ he read out loud as his eyes fell on the hanging, immobile cat before him. Suddenly shrieking filled the hallways as Filch turned on Harry; ‘You!’ he screeched, ‘You! You’ve murdered my cat! You killed her! I’ll kill you! I’ll ...’

Draco never got to hear the rest of the threat that had just placed the school caretaker high on his list of enemies as Dumbledore appeared and took control of the situation.

As Harry was led past him he reached out his hand and let his finger tips graze those of the other boy in a silent show of support, Harry caught his eye and gave a small smile. Draco couldn’t believe that they thought Harry could do this, were they idiots?

......

Harry was furious, they were in the Gryffindor Common room and Ron had been spewing rubbish about Draco for a good ten minutes,

‘Come on you’ve only got to look at his foul rat face to know it’s him...’

‘Enough!’ Harry shouted, ‘It’s not Dra... Malfoy will you just leave it be.’

Ron stared at Harry’s outburst, ‘Why are you defending him Harry?’

‘i’m not you’re just being ridiculous, he is not the heir of Slytherin.’

‘You sure? And it sure sounds like you’re defending him from where I’m standing,’ Ron crossed his arms across his chest and stared defiantly at Harry,

‘I’m not,’ Harry said quietly

‘You are,’ Ron blustered, ‘and don’t think I didn’t notice you nearly said Draco before , how stupid do you think I am Harry?’

‘I don’t think you’re stupid but just stop talking about people like that way, it’s not you Ron, calling people foul names and making accusations without proof’

‘What proof do you have he’s not?’ shouted Ron, fists now clenched down by his sides.

‘I don’t I just know,’ Harry shouted back

‘You’re picking him over me aren’t you?’

‘Where did that come? Of course not.’

Ron spluttered, ‘You are, you’re siding with that loathsome rat over me without any proof.’

‘Stop calling him names,’ Harry screamed at Ron

Before Ron could reply Hermione stormed down the stairs from her dorm in to the common room, ‘What the hell is going on?’ she demanded

Ron turned on her, ‘Malfoy is the heir of Slytherin and Harry is defending him.’ He huffed

Hermione rolled her eyes, ‘Malfoy is not the heir of Slytherin Ronald.’ Ron’s jaw dropped: ‘ You too, has he cursed you both?’

‘Ron’ Harry yelled, ‘stop now just stop it.’

‘What is it with you Harry?’ Ron shouted back, ‘Why do you care so much about rat face?’

Before he could stop himself Harry found himself shouting, ‘because he’s my friend,’ right in to Ron’s very red face. Ron swung his fist and it connected with Harry’s jaw knocking Harry off his feet. The two boys stared at each other as Harry brought his hand up to rest on his jaw.

Harry got himself up and stormed past Ron up the stairs to his dorm room, he flung himself on his bed fighting back the tears burning in his eyes, he thought Ron was his friend, he thought he was safe away from the Dursley’s. Harry didn’t know what to think, he needed to see Draco, he needed his friend.

......

......

 

 


	6. Secrets

** 26\. Secrets. **

The dormitory was dark and quiet when Harry burst through the door. Seamus and Dean were already asleep but Neville witnessed the distraught boy throwing himself on his bed and heard him sobbing quietly in the dark. It took him a few seconds of indecision before he made his mind up and made his way across the room to Harry.

Harry looked up from his pillow as he felt the edge of his bed dip, he blinked at Neville who was still blurry through his tears and saw concern etched on his face;

‘Are you ok?’ Neville asked quietly, a little unsure whether he was welcome or not.

Harry stared for a second before putting his head back down and mumbling ‘I’m fine in to his pillow.’

‘You don’t look fine, I could hear what happened, I can see the mark on your face what happened? Do you want to talk about it? ,’

Harry lifted his head once more and looked as though he was weighing something up in his mind after a second he replies, ‘No sorry Nev I really can’t.’ Harry sniffed and looked extremely sorry for himself. Neville watched his friend and thought for a second, he pulled his bottom lip between his teeth and chewed before coming to a decision;

‘Okay, how about this, we make a deal , a pact, a share for a share, I will tell you a secret and trust you with it so you can tell me what’s bothering you, how does that sound?’

Harry looked at Neville and considered his offer, he so desperately wanted to share, to talk to someone about everything. Harry pulled himself in to a sitting position and looked in to Neville’s honest brown eyes and gave a small nod ; ‘ok’ he agreed.

Neville took a deep breath and wiped his suddenly sweating palms down his pyjama legs; ‘Ok well I’m trusting you to keep this secret, but, well I overheard that conversation that night with Ron,’ Harry felt his cheeks burning as he realised which conversation Neville was referring to, Neville noticed his friends red face and continued, ‘don’t worry,’ he reassured him, ‘that is what I am trying to tell you, I like boys too, that’s my secret, do what you want with it.’ Harry stared at the boy in front of him with wide eyes.

‘Really? How do you know? When did you realise?’

‘Yep, I noticed over summer that I was thinking certain things, and then, well then I noticed a certain someone when we came back to school, hearing your conversation just confirmed it for me really, it was nice to know I wasn’t the only one feeling that way...’

‘Who?’ Harry interrupted, ‘Who’s the certain someone?’

‘That’s another secret Harry, you first.’

So Harry took a deep breath and filled Neville in on everything from the day he met Draco at Madam Malkins right up to the argument with Ron and his subsequent punch, ‘and now all I really want is to see Drake so he can tell me that it is all ok and that he doesn’t hate me for telling Ron we are friends.’  Harry finished once again fighting back the tears. Harry looked up at Neville to gauge his reaction to the confession and found his friend thinking hard. Neville remained quiet for a minute before his face set in determination;

‘You want to hear another secret?’

Harry nodded silently, ‘I can help you,’ Neville stated and before Harry could say anything Neville was up and across the room at his own bed pulling what looked like an old piece of parchment and a quill from beneath his pillow. He returned to Harry, ‘Budge over,’ he said, Harry shuffled over to allow Neville to sit next to him, both boys were now sat cross legged leaning against Harry’s headboard. Harry looked at the parchment in Neville’s lap and raised a confused eyebrow, ‘Watch,’ Neville instructed. With that instruction he drew his knees up in front of him to allow him to lean on them as he began to write on the parchment in front of him:

_Are you there?_

Harry watched in amazement as the words slowly began to disappear as though they were being absorbed in to the paper, a million questions formed in his mind but, before he could speak new words began to worm in elegant cursive across the parchment;

_Yes, is everything ok?_

Neville sucked the tip of his quill in thought for a moment before replying;

_No, not really, I think I need to ask you a favour, you might not like it I’m sorry but it’s important or I wouldn’t ask._

_Ask anything. Are you ok? What is going on? What’s wrong?_

A small smile played on Neville’s lips at the obvious concern in the words, he wrote his reply;

‘ _It might be a lot to ask but it could possibly involve letting one of your house mates know about our friendship, how do you feel about that?’_

Harry looked at Neville in shock, so he wasn’t the only one with a secret friendship, who knew Neville had it in him? Harry looked down at the one word reply that had just appeared on the parchment;

_Who?_

Neville turned to Harry, ‘Can I mention Malfoy?’

Harry thought for a second, this was important and he trusted Neville and if he could get to talk to Draco then it would all be worth it, he nodded at Neville  then watched as the word Malfoy was written on the parchment, the reply came quickly;

_He already knows Nev, don’t worry, are you going to tell me what this is about? What’s going on?_

Neville’s grin spread across his face as he realised that Malfoy knew about this friendship and that it still existed, he had never felt happier, he was still beaming as he scratched out his reply;

_Are you with him?_

_I am looking right at him, he is sitting on his bed? Nev you are worrying me._

Harry was shocked again, not only was Neville’s secret friend a Slytherin but a dorm mate and more than possibly a friend of Draco’s, he wondered who it could be.

_Sorry I didn’t mean to worry you, I will explain in a second. Do you think you could go over to Malfoy so he can see what I write next before it disappears so I don’t have to write it twice._

_Sure hang on._

A few minutes went by where Harry could picture a very stubborn Draco Malfoy being bribed and quite possibly blackmailed in to talking to Neville. Harry’s heart sped up as wonderfully familiar handwriting appeared before them;

_What is it Longbottom? This better be good._

Neville huffed and rolled his eyes at Draco’s question and turned back to look at Harry, ‘What should I tell him?’

Harry thought for a second, ‘The truth but no names for now I need to tell him that face to face.’

Neville nodded and began to write;

_I’m with Harry he needs to talk to you._

_Harry? Really?_

_Yes, Harry he needs to see you, something has happened._

_What? Is he ok, what’s happened, you better tell me now Longbottom._

Neville looked at Harry who simply nodded for him to continue,

_Harry is a bit upset and needs you right now, something happened, there was a bit of a disagreement in the common room and it ended up with someone punching Harry in the face, he is not in a good way and needs some reassurance from you._

The reply was instantaneous

_BRING HIM TO ME NOW._

Neville looked at Harry with wide eyes, ‘Well I guess we better go then.’

......

Harry and Neville arrived at the Trophy Room a few seconds before the Slytherin’s so Harry had the perfect view of Neville’s blush that covered his neck and face Blaise Zabini walked in to the Trophy Room followed closely by a very irate looking Draco Malfoy. Harry had no time to be shocked at the identity of Neville’s secret Slytherin as his own was making his way over with an unreadable face. Draco grabbed Harry and pulled him in to a hug before placing his hands on his shoulders and gently pushing him backwards so that Draco could look at his face properly. Draco’s eyes narrowed in concern as he took in Harry’s eyes, red and puffy from crying and then there was the large bruise that was beginning to form on the left side of Harry’s jaw, Draco slowly ran his fingers down Harry’s jaw drifting then carefully across the bruise and Harry closed his eyes at the touch.

‘Are you ok?’ Draco asked as he moved his hand back to Harry’s shoulder.

‘I am now Drake, thanks for coming.’

‘As if I wouldn’t Harry. For Merlin’s sake what happened? Who did this to you?’ Draco asked with barely contained rage.

Harry shifted nervously and glanced over to where Neville  and Zabini were huddled whispering just to the side of them, he was sure that Neville would tell Zabini everything so there was no point trying to hide anything;

‘Ron,’ Harry’s whisper was barely audible

‘Weasley did this?’ Draco seethed. Harry nodded and Draco fought to keep in his rage under control knowing it would do Harry know favours right now. ‘ Why?’ he hissed.

Harry looked up in to those silver eyes, ‘He was calling you names, I told him to stop, he wouldn’t, he wanted to know why I was defending you, I’m so sorry Drake.’ Harry mumbled in a small voice

‘What on earth have you got to be sorry for?’ Draco was incredulous that Harry was apologising whilst also inwardly preening at Harry’s defence of him.

‘I told him you were my friend and you didn’t want anyone else to know and now I ‘ve told Nev too, I’m so sorry I ...’

‘Harry stop apologising, believe it or not I’m glad that you want to tell people. I will admit it is a little difficult for me at the moment but it won’t always be that way, if you and Blaise trust Longbottom then so do I, and if Ron decides to say something we will deal with that as it happens. Wait is that why he hit you? Because we are friends?’

Harry nodded slowly, Draco was dumbfounded what sort of person punches someone because of who they choose to be friends with; ‘Harry I feel as though this is somehow my fault.’

Before Harry could reply Neville spoke up, ‘Of course it’s not your fault Malfoy, Ron is an idiot plain and simple, Harry did the right thing defending you.’

Draco looked momentarily shocked before he schooled his features in to a mask of indifference, ‘Well thankyou Longbottom, I see Blaise was right about you.’ This simple statement caused Neville to blush up to the tips of his ears and a smirk to grace Blaise’s face, ‘erm thanks,’ stammered Neville,’ suddenly reverting back to his shy persona.

‘I believe you deserve thanks for having Harry’s back that way and bringing him to me.’

‘It’s no problem, he wanted you and I had a way of making it happen.’

‘Yes, about that, that is an interesting couple of pieces of parchment  you and Blaise have,may I ask where you got them from?’

‘They belonged to my parents.’ Neville said quietly. Harry was surprised at this and the mention of Neville’s seldom talked about parents, the statement also made him wonder exactly what Blaise Zabini meant to Neville allowing him possession of something so precious.

Neville continued, ‘They used them to communicate when they were on Auror missions and even more so when my mum stayed home pregnant with me so she knew dad was ok.’

‘I see,’ said Draco with a small nod, ‘do you know where they got them from?’

‘Gran made them, I believe she had a lady friend that her family did not approve of,’ Neville replied with a renewed blush. Draco’s face fell at this, he was hoping he could get a set for himself and Harry. Neville saw this and it dawned on him why Draco was so interested;

‘Malfoy,’ Draco looked up, ‘I have another set, there was always a back up in case one or more were compromised, and, because of this there is also an incantation that allows all four pieces to be linked as well...’

Before Neville could continue Draco interrupted, ‘Name your price?’

Neville shook his head, ‘I’m not selling them to you Malfoy...’ Draco interrupted again, ‘What why not?’ Draco stared at Neville in shock he was not used to being denied anything, Neville laughed, ‘No Malfoy you don’t understand, I’m not selling them to you because I am giving them to you and Harry, yours are a pair like ours so you can only see what the other writes, if you speak the incantation whatever you write until you cast the reversal can be seen on all three of the others . After seeing Harry tonight I could not think of anyone else I would rather have them.’

Draco was saved from doing something ridiculously embarrassing like hugging Longbottom when Harry ran at his house mate and pulled him in to a tight embrace. Draco had mocked Blaise on first hearing about his friendship with the bumbling Gryffindor but tonight had proven that Blaise’s instincts were not misplaced. The boy was a Gryffindor for a reason and he could see that Harry and Blaise had a true and loyal friend in him. Draco looked up at his own house mate and caught a glint of something in his eye as he watched Longbottom whispering with Harry, well that was interesting and unexpected, especially after all the Pansy kissing, he obviously had much more in common with his Italian friend then he had originally thought, he chuckled as he imagined Pansy’s reaction, she was going to love this new development. Blaise raised an eyebrow at his chuckle and they both turned back to look at their respective Gryffindors who were now deep in conversation about the pieces of parchment whilst occasionally casting glances towards their Slytherin counterparts. It was one of these glances that reminded Draco why they were all here in the first place as he caught sight of Harry’s bruise once more and grimaced, the Weasel was going to pay, there would be no doubt about that, he caught Blaise’s eye, some serious plotting needed to take place, this would not be forgotten.

 


	7. In the Morning

** In the morning.  **

The early morning sun broke through the clouds and shone through the tall windows, illuminating the sleeping figures on the cold stone floor of the Trophy Room. Draco opened sleep blurred eyes and groaned as he tried to move his stiff body, he brought his left hand to his eyes and rubbed at them tiredly with the heel. With a sudden start Draco realised that he could not move his right hand, in fact he could not really feel his left arm at all, slowly and purposely he turned his head and looked down at the right side of his body, what he saw there made a small smile creep on to his face and a warm feeling settle in the pit of his stomach. Curled up and pressed against Draco’s side was Harry Potter, Draco could not feel his arm as it was wrapped around Harry’s waist and pinned tightly between Harry and the stone wall behind them.  Draco quite happily left his arm there and stared down at the raven-haired Gryffindor in his arms, he watched Harry’s shoulders move up and down with each breath he took and felt content to stay where he was. Draco had no idea how long he watched Harry sleep when a small sound from across the room made him jump slightly, he checked to make sure he had not disturbed Harry who was still sleeping obliviously and turned his head in the direction on the sound.  Draco could not help but grin at the sight that met him, he admitted to himself it surprised him a little but not as much as it would have done if he had not reached certain conclusions the previous night. About six feet to his left Blaise Zabini was fast asleep curled up on his side mouth hanging slightly open which accounted for the occasional whimpering noise that Draco could hear, what had made Draco smile so much was the sight of Blaise’s left arm wrapped tightly around the small Gryffindor  boy was back was pressed firmly against his chest, long, dark, elegant fingers laced with shorter pale ones, Draco’s eyes rose to Neville’s face and he noticed the small smile on the boys face who looked quite content as he slept , he had not had much time for Longbottom before now, thinking of him as just the Gryffindor idiot but things had changed , now he was willing to get to know the boy who Blaise seemed so taken with, ‘Zabini’s Gryffindor’ he dubbed him with a small smile, at this thought he looked back at Blaise and was met with wide open dark brown eyes that stared at him as though in challenge. Draco knew that Blaise was expecting torment and some sort of derogatory comment and was stealing himself for it ready with rebuttal  or even denial.

‘Morning’ Draco mouthed at his friend.

‘Morning,’ Blaise mouthed back, still staring back at Draco as though challenging him to comment on his unusual sleeping position.Draco winked and inclined his head slightly towards Harry, ‘should we wake them?’ he mouthed.

‘Reckon so ‘ Blaise returned as he looked down at Neville’s sleeping form. Draco glanced down and Harry and then suddenly his head snapped back around to Blaise as he remembered the reason that the four of them were there in the first place. Blaise eyed him with the Slytherin equivalent of surprise and a little concern and Draco hissed, ‘Weasley,’ through his teeth, Blaise narrowed his eyes slightly and gave a small nod  of his head, Draco knew that whatever he planned for Weasley Blaise would have his back one hundred percent . Draco was pulled out his murderous musings as Harry mumbled at his side, ‘No more sausages Mrs Weasley.’ Blaise raised an amused eyebrow before carefully unlacing his fingers from Neville’s and beginning the task of waking the small boy. Using his free hand Draco supported Harry so he could extract his now tingling arm from behind Harry and the sleeping Gryffindor began to stir, ‘Drake?’ Harry asked as his eyes blinked open.

‘It better be,’ laughed Draco, not sure whether or not he wanted Harry to fully understand the implication of his words, Draco just knew that he didn’t want Harry to ever wake up in anyone else’s arms he simply would not allow it.

‘Huh?’ Harry said sleepily

‘Never mind,’

‘Where are we?’

‘Trophy Room.’

‘Why?’ Harry looked up at Draco and Draco watched those bright green eyes cloud over as Harry remembered  the reason they were there. Draco saw the pain in Harry’s eyes and vowed to get Weasley back.

....

Breakfast at the Gryffindor table was a strained and quiet affair. Word of the altercation between Ron and Harry had spread that morning like wildfire, most of the first year were not speaking to Ron, in shock over what he had done to his best friend, there were whispers and stares and speculation was rife over what Harry had done to cause Ron to hit him. Ron remained resolutely silent, stubbornly refusing to say what had happened silently grumbling his way through his bacon and eggs. Hermione sat stoically at his side but was not attempting to speak to him as she was disgusted with his behaviour but too much of a good friend to leave him to eat alone.  A hush fell over the table and Hermione looked up to see Harry entering the hall followed closely by Neville, Hermione flashed him a small smile which he gratefully returned.

Harry kept his head down as he walked a bit further down the table sitting that he and Neville could look over at the Slytherin table across the Great Halll, he was happy to find that Draco and Blaise had decided to do the same. At that moment Draco looked up and steely grey eyes met his own, Harry felt reassured as they shared a small smile before tucking in to their breakfasts noticing Neville and Blaise do the same.

......

‘Where were you both?’ Pansy hissed across the table as she sat down across from her two best friends who seemed to be resolutely ignoring her.

‘Draaacoooo.’ She simpered  dragging out the vowels of his name in a way that she knew that Draco hated, ‘Blaisey,’ she sang at the Italian who merely raised an eyebrow at her over his coffee cup, she knew full well his aversion to having his name butchered in such a way.

‘I can do this allllll day.’ She continued in her sing-sing voice.

‘Pans,’ Blaise said, ‘enough!’

Pansy wrapped her arms across her chest and pouted  in a way only she could.

‘Fine.’ She said as she brought her hand to her face in the pretence of admiring her new manicure, ‘Hmmm I wonder how Potter will feel if someone lets him know that you two disappeared and spent to the night off together somewhere. All alone.’

Draco lowered his spoon slowly and glared at his friend dangerously , ‘I am not quite sure what you mean Pansy.’ He said through clenched teeth.

‘Well,’ she said, completely disregarding the menacing glares she was receiving, ‘Imagine this if you will. I woke up early this morning to an absolute travesty, it was bordering on disaster, I went to do my hair when I remembered that I had ran out of my very expensive Italian hair styling product and I had totally forgotten to replace it , so I thought, who do I know? Who do I know  who has more hair products than the entir8e second-year girls dorm combined?’ at this she raised hey eyebrow and first glanced at Blaise then Draco staring purposely at them both in turn. ‘So, in my hour of dire need I ran, gracefully I might add, to my knights in shining armour and to my absolute horror I find both of them missing and beds not slept in , whatever is a girl supposed to do? So I woke Greg, ‘ she stole a glance at a very grumpy Goyle,’I don’t think he appreciated it very much and he informed me that you two left together in the middle of the night and. Never. Came. Back.’  Pansy began twirling her hair around her finger in an attempt to look innocent that fooled no-one, ‘so’ she continued, ‘obviously I was traumatised, so I took some  hair product anyway, you know, to just clam my nerves.’

‘Who’s?’ Draco asked with a hint of challenge.

‘Now wouldn’t that be telling.’ Pansy replied with a small smile, ‘sooooo do I need to speak to Potter?’ she asked.

Draco sighed, ‘come on’ he said , ‘I could use your evil mind anyway.

Pansy immediately perked up at this, ‘ooooh sounds fun,’ she said gleefully as she followed the boys out of the hall.

......

Harry woke early on the Saturday morning and lay for a while, thinking about the coming Quidditch match. He was nervous, he had never wanted to win so much, he had never wanted to beat Slytherin  so badly, he was looking forward to racing against Draco, to fly side by side with him, in competition with Draco to see who could get the snitch first, it was exciting  but he did not want to look stupid in front the Slytherin. Harry looked across the dorm at the slumbering form of Ron and sighed, they had not spoken a word to each other since that night in the common room and, despite everything Harry missed him. Harry had spent the last few weeks discussing the possibility of The Chamber of Secrets and it’s possible location with Hermione and Draco, occasionally bringing Blaise and Neville in to the mix, they had not got very far, but even so he still missed Ron’s input. Harry stopped himself and frowned as he realised that it had been Ron’s somewhat unwanted input that had caused their fight in the first place, Harry huffed , jumped up and got dressed, he headed to the Great Hall without a backwards glance to join the rest of the Gryffindor team around the table.

As eleven o’clock approached the whole school started to make its way down to the Quidditch stadium.

......

‘Someone’s – tampered – with – this – Bludger- ‘ Fred grunted, swinging his bat with all his might as it launched a new attack on Harry.

......

Draco felt as though he was close to a heart attack. He heart was beating wildly as he watched Harry dodge an errant Bludger for what had to be the fifth time if not more, he flew so that he was closer to his Gryffindor friend,

‘All right there Scarhead?’ he shouted in concern as Harry dodged the heavy black bludger that seemed to have it in for him.  Harry looked over at him quickly but had to move before he could speak, the bludger was actually changing direction in mid-air like a boomerang to shoot straight back at Harry. Draco watched gratefully as the clones flew tight by Harry’s side thankful for evey time they hit the bludger away even when they sent it hurtling towards him. He was watching Harry so intently that he barely heard the score as Slytherin took the lead, his heart was beating form his chest as he watched Harry in fear, it was obvious that the bludger had it in for Harry, it had been tampered with, tampered with to purposely injure his Harry, who would do that? And why?

Draco watched as the Gryffindor’s called a time out . ‘About time,’ Draco mumbled to himself, surely they thought more of their Seeker. He watched as Harry seemed to be arguing furiously  with the clones, Harry seemed to have the last word as he flew back in to the air with a look of determination on his face. The clones flew back in to the air but did not follow Harry, Why weren’t they protecting Harry? Did they want him to die? He was going to kill them both, slowly and painfully, the bludger was trying to kill Harry, were they idiots. Draco was furious and immediately flew to Harry just as he dodged the bludger once more, ‘Training for the ballet Potter?’ Draco yelled as he got closer, Harry stopped and looked at him as Draco drew up alongside him, ‘Harry what the hell is going on?’ 

Before he could answer Harry spotted the snitch behind Draco’s head, he waited a split second too long while he decided on the best course of action, WHAM, before he knew what had happened the bludger had smacked in to his elbow. Draco looked at Harry in concern and Harry knew he was close to trying to stop the match so before Draco could utter a word he raced after the snitch and exhaled in relief as Draco gave chase, although Harry was not sure whether Draco was chasing the snitch or him.

......

As Harry was carted off to the Hospital Wing, yet again, Draco began to plot the downfall of a certain blonde haired idiotic professor.


	8. Parseltounge

28\. **Parseltounge.**

Saturday night once again found Harry  and Draco pressed shoulder to shoulder leaning against the Trophy Room wall. They had not seen each other since the incident with the possessed Bludger and Harry had begun to fill Draco in on the reappearance of Dobby.

‘He did what?’

Draco stared at his Gryffindor friend as though he had grown another head. Harry nodded slowly, ‘Yep it was your elf Drake, your elf is trying to kill me,’ Harry deadpanned.

Draco groaned and ran a hand through his hair that was currently hanging loose around his face.

‘You have got to be kidding, did he say why?’

‘Not really just the same old not wanting me to come back to school, he is trying to save my life apparently.’ Harry shrugged like it didn’t matter and turned the page of the potions book that was resting on his lap. They had supposed to have been studying but the idea of that had vanished once the boys had started to talk about Dobby. Harry had long since accepted that it was Dobby so spoke with indifference, he was more than a little amused at Draco’s shock. ‘He won’t tell me why he is doing it, just that it’s for own good basically, I mean what can be worse than Dobby trying to save my life though? Oh and before I forget, when they bought Colin in to the Hospital Wing Dumbledore confirmed it, he confirmed that The Chamber of Secrets is open.’

Draco slowly turned to look at the boy who was sitting next to him, ‘Are you serious? I mean I know we suspected it, but to hear it confirmed like that and I heard about that Creevey boy too I’m sorry.’ Draco lifted his arm to place around Harry’s shoulders and the smaller boy leaned in to his touch.

Harry sighed, ‘I feel like that was my fault, he was coming to see me .’

‘Harry, it was not your fault, you don’t even know for definite that he was, and it could not have been helped anyway you could not have stopped him the boy is a little stalkerish..’ Harry cut him off, ‘Drake he’s in hospital, he might not recover don’t be mean.’ Harry pulled away as he said this staring at Draco with wide eyes as though not quite believing what was being said.

‘Sorry, sorry I know I’m sorry I can’t help but dislike the way he follows you around like an adoring puppy dog it’s like he has no self respect...’

‘Draco stop it, the boy is in the hospital wing at least could you try and be nice about him and if not just don’t say anything at all yeah.’ This time Harry fully moved away from Draco, he was getting angry he couldn’t understand why Draco was being so mean. ‘I don’t understand you, why are you being like this?’ Harry voiced his thoughts. Draco knew that he should stop, he knew he was taking this too far and pushing his friend but he couldn’t help the feeling of jealously that was curling around and rising from the pit of his stomach, why did Harry insist on defending the boy who thought stalking Harry was completely acceptable and normal? What was it about the boy? ‘Well I don’t understand you either what is your obsession with the boy, do you enjoy his hero worship.’ Draco instantly wished he could take the words back as he watched Harry’s face fall then set in a hard line, Harry pushed himself up from the floor and turned to face Draco, ‘Out of order,’ he said before turning and stalking out of the room without looking back.

‘Brilliant,’ sighed Draco as he let his head fall in to his hands ‘just brilliant.’

......

Harry was fighting back the tears as he threw himself on his bed, why was Draco such an idiot? He didn’t understand, he knew Draco was different but sometimes the Malfoy that prowled the school corridors showed his face and Harry wished he would stop it he really did. Whilst Harry was lost in his musings he noticed his pillow had begun to vibrate, sighing with resignation he turned and pulled the parchment from its hiding place.

_I didn’t mean it._

Harry sighed again, he knew Draco didn’t mean it, he knew Draco well enough by now, when Draco was mad he said what he knew would have the most affect whether he meant it or not, but that did not stop it from hurting. Harry had already forgiven Draco, he really didn’t want to lose another friend, and anyway he couldn’t be mad at him for long but he decided to make Draco suffer for a little while.

_Mean what?_

_You know what, I know you don’t like that. I know it’s not true, it’s not you, not who you are.  I don’t know why I said it._

_Said what?_

_Harry, you know what I said, come on I really didn’t mean it._

Harry paused not knowing what to say in reply, he wasn’t sure how much longer he wanted this to go on, and as he thought Draco sent another message.

_Please forgive me?_

Ah, Harry thought, with a small smile, this is more like it.

_How can I forgive you when you haven’t apologised?_

_Harry.._

_Yes_

_Harry, come on you know I am._

_You are what?_

Harry was beginning to enjoy himself, he knew Draco struggled with apologies, he blamed his Malfoy upbringing. Frankly Harry didn’t expect an apology he just wanted to push Draco a little bit to punish him for the hero worship comment, when three words appeared on the parchment that made him catch his breath...

_Harry, I’m sorry._

Harry wished he could capture those words forever. For some reason those words meant so much to him, they filled him with a warm sensation that he never wanted to lose. He decided to let Draco off the hook.

_It’s ok,I forgive you, now get some sleep._

.......

A week later, Harry and Hermione were walking across the Entrance Hall when they saw a small knot of people gathered around the notice board, reading a piece of parchment that had just been pinned up.

......

Harry groaned as he entered The Great Hall, he had been excited when he had seen the notice advertising the Duelling Club and the corridors had been buzzing with talk about it for days, but now, well now all Harry wanted was to turn around and leave.  In fact he tried but unfortunately for him Hermione had a vice like grip on the sleeve of his robe which meant resistance was futile. Harry sent a meaningful glare in her direction, which she dutifully ignored then resigned himself to an hour of complete misery. A club that by rights should be fun was being overseen by Snape, who despite Draco’s assurances he was sure hated the bones of him and the smiling idiot Lockheart who seemed to be as obsessed with Harry as he was with his own appearance. Harry readily admitted the man was beautiful but that made no excuses for his complete idiocy, he had had many debates with Hermione, who, for someone so intelligent could not see past the beauty, even after the man had vanished all the bones from his arm. He glanced at his friend again, she had gone all gooey eyed staring at the blonde Professor and Harry decided she was way beyond help.

.....

Draco sneered as Lockheart continually made a fool of himself , the man was an incompetent idiot and by the looks of it he needed no-ones help to demonstrate this. He was looking forward to this duelling club and had badgered Snape to make sure he was partnered with Harry, at one point he even threatened to beg which was the point in which Snape gave in.

......

‘Rictusempra’

Draco vowed he was going to get Harry for this as he doubled over as the full force of the tickles hit him. Harry knew full well how ticklish he was, how Slytherin of him to use it to his advantage. Draco wouldn’t admit it out loud be he was a little proud of Harry for exploiting his knowledge and using Draco’s weakness to his advantage, although he now wanted him to suffer, well not suffer but he needed to get him back. Draco searched his mind for something he could use against Harry without hurting him, he found the information he needed and a slow smirk appeared across his face;

‘Tarantellegra.’

In the next second the boy who hated dancing so much was dancing what appeared to be a quick step. Draco doubled over in laughter once more this time it was of his own doing as Harry glared at him from behind his glasses, he was fighting back tears and clutching his sides when he heard Snape finish the spell.

......

Draco stood face to face with Harry, wands drawn the whole rooms attention on them;

‘Scared?’ muttered Draco, so that Lockheart couldn’t hear him.

‘You wish.’ Said Harry with a smirk.

Lockheart cuffed Harry merrily on the shoulder, ‘Just do what I did, Harry.’

‘What, drop my wand?’ Harry muttered causing Draco to fight back a snort and a small smile to grace Harry’s lips.

.....

Draco stood with is mouth hanging open as the large black snake dropped to the floor in front of Finch-Fletchly mouth open, fangs bared, ready to attack.  Then he saw Harry move, what was he doing? Idiot, get back he wanted to shout, do you want to be attacked? What happened next stopped Draco doing anything stupid like throwing himself between Harry and the snake.  Harry opened his mouth and the strangest sounds emerged, the air around them became thick with hisses, the words curling from Harry’s tongue and around his lips, slithering out in to the room before him, wrapping like long tendrils around each and every occupant. Draco was mesmerised, the sounds coming from his friends mouth rendered him unable to move as though hit with a curse,  he couldn’t stop staring, mouth hanging slightly open as the world seemed to slow down around him. There was something about Harry in that moment that wanted to pull Draco towards him like a magnet, the sounds that escaped Harry’s lips wrapped around him like soft caresses. Draco felt safe, secure and oddly warm, he felt a flush creeping up his body as he watched his friend take control of the snake before him, he oozed power and confidence like Draco had never seen in him before, it suited him and Draco knew he would give anything to see again. Draco closed his eyes and let the soft sibilant hisses wash over him, but, before he knew it, it was over as quickly as it had began.

......

Draco was lay on his bed arms crossed behind his head and legs crossed at the ankles, his eyes were closed and he was replaying the events of the day, well more specifically the events on the duelling club and the way Harry’s words had made him feel, no matter which way round he looked at it he couldn’t understand it. He had felt as though he was in a bath, the words flowing over him like warm water lulling him to relax. Suddenly  Draco was rudely disturbed from his thoughts as felt his head vibrating in the pattern allocated for a four way chat,  with a deep sigh and without opening his eyes Draco pulled the parchment from beneath his pillow, he inhaled deeply and slowly opened his eyes to read Neville’s untidy message;

_Malfoy have you seen Harry,_

Draco sat bolt upright and scrabbled to pull his quill from his school bag.

_What do you mean?_

_No-one has seen him since duelling club, there are rumours flying around school that because he can speak Parsel tounge he is the Heir of Slytherin._

Draco could not answer for a moment, The heir of Slytherin, were they insane, parseltounge was unusual , ok so it was rare, very rare,  but these people were clearly insane , before he could reply Blaise wandered in to the common room, he caught the Italian’s eyes and glanced down at the parchment on his lap in what he hoped was a meaningful way, Blaise nodded in acknowledgment and climbed on his bed pulling his own parchment from beneath his pillow. Within a minute Blaise’s elegant cursive had appeared at the parchment.

_Don’t worry Nev he will turn up and there is no way Potter is the Heir of Slytrherin,_

Draco rolled his eyes at the obvious statement and, although it felt strange to write to someone in the same room he wrote his reply.

_Well obviously Blaise but we do need to find him._

_Thanks Blaise and I know Malfoy, even Hermione does not know where he is, I thought you might though._

Draco was a little annoyed that he didn’t know but didn’t let on. He knew Harry well and he knew Harry probably needed to hide away from unwanted attention.

_He probably just wants a little space._

_I know Malfoy but there is something you don’t know._

Draco glanced up at Blaise who shrugged.

_Ron had another go, he accused Harry in the middle of the common room and Harry just left, no one has seen him since._

Draco’s fists clenched involuntarily crumpling the parchment he was holding, he was still working on his revenge plot for Weasley but now it was clear that he would need to step it up a notch.

 _Draco do you know where he would go?_ Blaise wrote.

Draco snapped back from his revenge fantasies and sighed,

_No, not really I have ideas but if Harry does not want to be found we won’t find him._

Draco was careful what he wrote as he wasn’t sure if anyone knew about the invisibility cloak.

 _I know we are worried but he will turn up_. Appeared next in Blaise’s handwriting. But before anyone could reply a very familiar scrawl appeared.

_Guys I’m ok._

_Where are you? Are you ok? Harry what happened_? Appeared simultaneously in three different sets of handwriting, each overlapping the last.

_I’m ok just having a minute, wanted some space, lucky my parchment was in my bag though wouldn’t want you worrying, so I guess you have questions?_

_So you can talk to snakes?_ Appeared from Blaise

_Yeah, but It was only the second time, I accidently set free a boa-constrictor when I was younger._

Draco’s mouth dropped open in a very undignified manor.

_BOA-CONSTRICTOR??_

_You freed a boa- constrictor?_

And

_What?_

Appeared one by one on Harry’s parchment causing him to chuckle,

 _I know,_ he replied _, I thought loads of people could do it._

Blaise answered _It’s not a very common gift in fact it is incredibly rare with only one or two documented cases in history and to be honest Harry it is usually associated with dark wizards._

Harry stared as the words formed on his parchment, wonderful he thought  just what he needed, he sighed and penned his reply leaning back against the wall in the quiet corner of the Trophy room.

_I’m not dark, if it wasn’t for me that snake would have attacked Justin, Ron said that I was telling it to attack, he told the whole common room and they were listening, but I wasn’t I was telling it to stop and it was listening, well before bloody Lockheart acted the idiot._

Up in the Slytherin dormitory Draco was silently cursing a certain red head as Neville’s reply appeared on the paper.

_Yes but Harry we know you and believe you,  just ignore him._

Once again Draco found himself praising the merits of Blaise’s Gryffindor friend.

 _Believe me? Could you not understand what I was saying?_ Harry’s question filled the parchment.

Draco was incredulous as he wrote a reply, _No Harry, you were speaking another language did you not know?_

 _I didn’t know,_ he replied _I was just speaking I didn’t even realise._

_Harry don’t worry about it, we trust you don’t we?_

_Of course._

_You are our friend._

Harry smiled as the words appeared, it felt nice to have someone listen to him, believe him and take his word for things but there was a question nagging at him so he carefully formed the words on the parchment,

_Was Slytherin a parselmouth?_

Blaise raised an eyebrow across the dorm at Draco as if seeking permission to reply, Draco inclined his head slightly and Blaise spelled out the word _Yes_ on his parchment.

Back in the Trophy Room Harry swallowed hard, he had thought as much but the confirmation was hard to stomach. Salazar Slytherin had lived about a thousand years ago; for all he knew, he really was his heir.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


	9. Draco's revenge.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Draco gets his revenge...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is dedicated to High functioning Fangirl in the hopes it breaks her curse :)

** 29\. Draco’s Revenge **

The sun was shining brightly in the sky as the three Slytherin’s made their way to breakfast feeling quite happy and with themselves and a little smug which was evident on all of their faces. After weeks of planning and debating and some insightful input from Neville (without his knowledge) they had figured out how to exact their revenge and now felt that the time was right to set their plan in motion and then sit back and enjoy the show. They had spent many nights sitting by themselves in the Slytherin common room trying to decide how best to exact the revenge when Blaise recounted a story Neville had told him and their minds were made up. Each Slytherin was talented in their own way and had skills in specific subjects although Draco was generally skilled in all things he tried his hands at so they were strong in their belief that they could not fail, after all they were Slytherins known to achieve their end by any means. They had waited a while, believing strongly that revenge was a dish served ice cold and they wanted Ron to be off his guard, completely unsuspecting. They had chosen today as it was a full day of Slytherin and Gryffindor classes so they had front row seats to what was to happen.

.......

Ron Weasley was bored and lonely, it had been weeks since he had lost his temper and punched his best friend, people were slowly starting to acknowledge him again but no one, not even his brothers would speak to him. His friends were avoiding him and even Hermione only stayed by his side so he was not left alone. It had been made worse by Ron’s insistence on not telling anyone the reason behind his outburst, he strongly believed Harry and Malfoy’s friendship was a whim and Harry was just dancing on the dark side, Ron believed he would get bored and it would end and Harry would come running back full of apologies, after all it was Malfoy who would want to remain friends with that slimy git. Ron plonked himself down at the breakfast table and threw a glare in the Slytherin’s direction for good measure, blaming them wholeheartedly for everything that he was going through, however Ron was most disconcerted to find Draco waving and smiling at him, Ron’s head snapped round looking for the real target of Draco’s attention only to find he was alone, what was the Slytherin up to, Ron furrowed his brow and decided to ignore the pretentious git, friend of Harry’s or not he would not let him get to him, he had a day full of him and the rest of his bloody house so he needed to control his temper and just enjoy his breakfast.

.....

The Gryffindor table began to fill around him as did the rest of the Great Hall, Ron always liked to get their a little earlier to get the best food and make the most of breakfast time, something he was unable to do at home being one of seven children, he didn’t even look up from his plate as he reached over to pick up his goblet of Pumpkin Juice. Ron was distracted and did not immediately register the slight tickling sensation on his hand, he lifted the goblet to his lips and his eyes landed on the cause of the tickles, a small spider was carefully making its way across Ron’s hand, slowly choosing its path from finger to finger. Ron spluttered, his eyes opened wide with fear, as round as two Galeons on his red face, he began whimpering and started shaking his hand from side to side to dislodge the unwelcome guest, Gryffindor’s on all sides of him were suddenly showered in Ron’s untouched Pumpkin Juice whilst the spider stoically remained seemingly enjoying the ride. With a final shake of his hand Ron’s goblet flew out of his hand and smacked Lavender Brown firmly on the side of the face, the girls hand flew up as she glared at Ron tears filling her eyes from the pain, she got up from the table and fled the hall closely followed by her girl friends. The majority of the table were, shouting, swearing and glaring at Ron who didn’t notice, his eight legged tormentor was clinging on as though it’s life depended on it, which it probably did. Fred had watched this take place and was yet again embarrassed by the behaviour of his little brother. He made his way over to Ron and clasped his brother on the shoulder and hissed in his ear and the boys whimpering was attracting attention from every house table,

‘What in Morganna’s name are you playing at?’

Ron turned his fear filled eyes on his brother, ‘S – p –pppp – pider.’ Ron managed to get out from between trembling lips, ‘On my hand’ he whispered as though it may be able to hear him.

‘Oh for...’ Fred rolled his eyes and leant over and flicked the spider from Ron’s hand before turning and striding out of the Great Hall to catch up with his twin. Trembling, Ron slowly lowered his hand and stared wide eyed around the Great Hall, all eyes were on him, every pair on the Gryffindor table were narrowed in annoyance especially those near by that had been showered in Pumpkin Juice. The looks around the Great Hall varied from surprise to amusement but those of a certain blonde haired Slytherin were glistening with glee, when Ron met his eyes, Draco lifted his goblet as though to toast him and sneered across the top. Ron glared in his direction this had to be his doing, he just knew it.

......

Transfiguration started off as normal, McGonagoll was discussing the theory of turning a living thing in to an inanimate object and Ron was doodling on his parchment. He was sitting at the front next to Seamus, the Gryffindors on one side of the room and the Slytherin’s on the other. Pansy, Draco and Blaise had decided to sit on the second row for the front for two reasons, Draco had placed himself directly across the aisle from Harry who was sitting behind Ron and he also had a perfect view of Ron. Unbeknown to many people Draco had a secret love of origami, he had been doing it since he was a young boy as a way to amuse himself during long, lonely hours at the manor and he had become quite adept at making any animal, he had decided to put this talent to use during this lesson, he knew he was risking the wrath of McGonagol but he decided that it was so worth it. Before the lesson Draco had made several tiny spiders out of paper and which were currently sitting in the pocket of his school bag waiting for a whispered charm from Pansy.

.....

It was about half way through the lesson when Draco decided to act, McGonagol was busy revisiting theory with a group of Slytherins who knew Draco needed a distraction. Slowly Draco slid his wand off the table and pointed it in the direction of his bag, he whispered an incantation that Pansy had looked up for him, with a quick glance and a smirk he noticed that the charm was working as planned so he sat back to enjoy the show.

......

Ron had filled his parchment with tiny doodles of snitches and Chudley Canon logos when he felt the tickling begin on his shin, absent-mindedly he began to rub his shin with the toes of the other foot but the tickling increased and soon it had spread to the other shin, glancing down Ron’s heart stopped. Due to the warmer weather Ron had forgone his robes so had a clear view of his shoes and climbing over his shoes were eight tiny spiders that were crawling up his socks and up the legs of his trousers, Ron was terrified. He shoved his chair back so hard he slammed in to Harry’s table behind him winding the raven-haired boy, Ron jumped to his feet and began jumping up and down, whimpers were escaping from his lips as McGonagol turned to see what the commotion was about;

‘Mr Weasley is there a problem?’

Ron could not answer, the tickling had intensified as more of the spiders made their way up his trouser legs, Ron made a strangled noise and began to undo his trousers just as Draco whispered another charm, in one swift movement Ron pulled his trousers down and off and kicked them  away from him.

‘Mr Weasley, never in all my years, what is the meaning of this ?’

‘S pp p iders.’ Ron managed to stutter pointing a shaking hand towards his trousers.

McGonagol strode over towards the discarded clothing silencing the laughing students around her with her stern glare. With the flick of a wrist she levitated Ron’s school trousers and shook them lightly, nothing happened expect a few pieces of crumpled white paper falling to the floor.

‘Detention Mr Weasley for distracting the class, I would not even expect this sort of exhibitionism from those brothers of yours, please kindly replace your clothing and refrain from distracting my class anymore.’

‘But, there was a spider on my leg.’

‘Mr Weasley, please there will be no more distractions.’

Ron pulled on his trousers after giving them another vigorous shake and dared to glance around at his class mates, it was obvious that they were all wanting to laugh and only their stern teacher was preventing them. Ron felt the heat flare in his cheeks as their colour rivalled that of his hair, he was never going to live this down, at least he had decided against his Willy the Whizz boxers at the last minute.

......

‘Weasley where’s your pants?’

‘Nice legs Weasley.’

‘Weasley watch out, invisible spider.’

The taunts had followed Ron from class to class throughout the rest of the day. He was sitting in his least favourite class but was grateful that it was the last class of the day, he could not waot to put the horrid day behind him.

.......

Professor Snape began writing the days ingredients on the board when he heard a whimper come from a table behind him, he slowly turned his head and raised his head at the Gryffindor responsible for the noise, ‘Is there a problem Weasley?’

‘No sir?’

‘Weasley has had a bit of a spider issue today Professor,’ came the cool drawl of Blaise Zabini, ‘So I think the prospect of spider’s legs has terrified him.’

Ron’s head snapped round as he glared at Zabini, who simply gazed levelly at him until he turned his head.

‘I’m sure that is not the case, in fact I’m sure Weasley would not mind collecting the legs for the whole class would you Weasley?’

Ron raised terrified eyes to Professor Snape and gulped as he pushed his stool back from his desk and slowly made his way to the ingredient store.

‘Today Weasley.’ Drawled Snape and Ron picked up the pace slightly.

......

Ron was paired with Hermione who had left him with strict instructions on how to prepare the ingredients while she made the potion. He glared at the spiders legs in front of them as though they had personally offended him and stabbed at them with his knife. Suddenly, right before his eyes two of the spiders legs jumped up and started dancing across the desk, the seemed to be marching to and fro, throwing in the occasional high kick for good measure. Ron was frozen in fear, he quickly glanced around the room and noticed that Malfoy was staring right at him, he knew it, he knew this was to do with him, the foul git he would get him for this. Whilst he was glaring at Draco he noticed the Slytherin incline his head back towards his desk, Ron whipped his head back around and screamed with fear as he jumped out of his stool, the spider’s legs were all moving towards him, creeping slowly across the desk as though converging on him, he needed to move, to get away, he ran from the classroom, shoving Hermione to the floor in his haste to leave the room. Red faced Ron ran from the classroom leaving behind a room of very confused but highly amused students.

.......

No there was not one Gryffindor that would speak to him, he had hurt Lavender and Hermione just a few weeks after hurting Harry and clearly had made a complete show of himself, thoroughly embarrassing his family members, Percy could not even look at him after hearing that he was pant less in front of Professor McGonagol. As Ron sat down to dinner people physically moved away from him, Ron ate quickly and stormed from the Great Hall not noticing the group of Slytherin’s that got up to follow him.

........

‘Weasley.’

Ron whirled around to find himself face to face with five Slytherins, Draco at their head, flanked by Blaise and Pansy, who in turn were flanked by Crabbe and Goyle.

‘What?’ Ron spat, ‘I know it was you, so why don’t you just admit it?’

‘Ok,’ said Draco coolly, ‘It was me.’

‘I knew it,’ Ron raged, hand twitching as it headed for his wand.

‘Do you think that’s a good idea?’ came the bored voice of Pansy as she and the others pointed their own wands at the red-head.

Ron glared at her but decided she was right..

‘Why?’ he spat, ‘I didn’t do anything to you.’

Draco kept eye contact and shrugged, ‘for Harry,’ he said simply, hoping that Crabbe and Goyle would just go with it, he could answer questions later.

‘Harry,’ Ron spluttered, ‘You did that for Harry, why?’

‘Of course I did and what do you mean why? He told you why.’

‘He told me... of course he didn’t we have not spoken in weeks.’

Draco took a step closer and said in quiet tones, ‘He told you and then you hit him Wealsey I suggest you think before I force you to remember.’

Draco stepped closer still, backing Ron in to a corner, ‘Harry was hurt, upset, betrayed, humiliated, frightened and blamed himself Weasley, and all I know is that if you have felt any of that today then I have done my job properly.’

Ron swallowed a gulp,’What do you care?’

Draco leant closer to Ron in a menacing way, foreheads almost touching, he felt the anger bubbling up inside him, ‘I care,’ he hissed at the Gryffindor, ‘Harry is my friend and when you hurt him you hurt me, you should bare that in mind in future Weasel, today was just the start of what I am willing to do for that boy so take that as a warning.’

With that Draco swung around and strode off down the corridor, his friends falling in to place behind him.

......

‘Harry,’ Ron said cautiously as he entered the dorm room.

Harry’s head snapped up at hearing his name from Ron, ‘What?’ he said cautiously.

‘I’d like to apologise.’

‘For what?’ Harry asked, feeling long buried resentment building in his chest.

‘Everything, Malfoy, hitting you, just everything.’ Ron said as he cautiously perched on the end of Harry’s bed.

‘You want to apologise for Draco?’ Harry asked incredulously.

‘Yes, I didn’t understand, I mean I still don’t but I can see he means a lot to you, and you him I guess.’

‘What do you mean and you him?’

‘Never mind, just listen I’m sorry ok, If you and Malfoy are friends I can deal with that as long as I don’t have to make nice with him.’

Harry stared a long time at Ron, he was sure he was hallucinating, ‘You mean it?’ he asked.

Ron shrugged, ‘Yeah I guess, and I’m really sorry for hitting you , it was a reaction, I didn’t mean for it to happen, god I’m sorry Harry, I didn’t realise how much it affected you, I shouldn’t have done it.’

Harry gave his friend a small smile, ‘It’s ok, we can sort it out, I forgive you.’

......

_Me and Ron sorted it._

_Oh that’s good, isn’t it?_

_Yes I guess, I can forgive him and he says he’s ok with us being friends._

_Oh is he now._

_Yes, I wonder what changed his mind?_

_We may never know._

_It was you wasn’t it_

_I’m not sure what you mean._

_The spiders today._

_Innocent until proven guilty._

_Drake?_

_So you and Ron are good now._

_Yes, thanks to you, what did you say? He seemed to think I mean a lot to you._

_That you do but I don’t know how he found that out._

_Drake?_

_Yes?_

_Thank you._

_Night Harry x_

_Night Drake xx_

Draco smiled as he pushed the parchment back under his pillow, it had been a good day all round and he had some funny memories of Weasle to keep him going for a while.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologise if anyone was offended by this :( I don't necessarily agree with Draco here and I certainly wouldn't use a phobia to get my revenge, but, in trying to think of a revenge I realised that that is exactly what Draco would do, he would exploit a weakness of his enemy and use it to his advantage. I was thinking like Draco. Sorry :$


	10. Neville's surprise.

** 30\. Neville’s surprise **

‘I didn’t chase it at him!’ Harry said, his voice shaking with anger. ‘It didn’t even touch him.’

Harry had decided that it would be a good idea to go and find Justin and explain the truth behind the whole snake situation. This is how he found himself in his current position, in the library surrounded by a group of shaken Hufflepuff’s who evidently believed that he was the Heir of Slytherin and that he was out to get all Muggle borns regardless of how vehemently he denied it refusing to listen to any explanations that he offered. This was how life had been for him, every where he looked people were whispering and staring, some even visibly shying away from him in the corridors. It was ridiculous, no matter what he said no one would hear him out. He attempted to continue the argument with the Hufflepuff’s before realising that it was fruitless and giving up and storming out of the library. He didn’t see the point it wasn’t like they were listening anyway. Harry bumped in to Hagrid swinging a dead rooster around and couldn’t quite believe the bizarre turn his life had taken. His last thought before he turned the corner was ‘how could it get any worse?’

......

_‘Oh Potter, you rotter, oh what have you done?                                                                                     You’re killing off students,you think it’s good fun-.’_

.......

Draco caught himself glaring at the clones again. He was frustrated, angry and even a little upset quite frankly he would be happy to hex both their grinning ginger faces off their shoulders but somehow he didn’t think that would go down very well with Harry. Since the attack on Nearly Headless Nick and Justin real panic had spread through the corridors of Hogwarts and Harry was miserable, people were now completely sure that Harry was the culprit after apparently publicly threatening Justin they believed it highly suspicious that he was the next victim. He hated seeing him this way, hanging his head in desolate disbelief at what the world around him had become and Draco especially hated being unable to do anything to help, even going over to offer a comforting word or touch were way beyond his current capabilities. Which was currently the reason he was throwing death glares in the direction of Fred and George Weasley, each with an increasing amount of venom, he would never admit it but he was jealous, their easy jokes and laughter were obviously cheering Harry up, they were doing what he should be doing and whats more, they were allowed, they could comfort and joke with Harry in the Great Hall, openly showing Harry and everybody else their support for the boy  in full view of everyone and no one would bat an eye lid. He knew it was impossible, comforting Harry in public, but it didn’t hurt any less. Each time something like this happened he felt his resolve weakening more and more, how long before Harry gave up on the friend who could not be a friend in public? How long before he would seek the comfort elsewhere that Draco couldn’t give? Draco closed his eyes and tried not to think of what would happen then.

.......

Term had finally ended and the school had practically emptied of students clamouring to escape the terror of Harry Potter, no longer the boy who lived but the Heir of Slytherin. Harry sighed deeply as he made his way to the Trophy room to meet Draco, he was so glad his friend had decided to stay after all, he knew he would have struggled without him although it was markedly easier now there were very few students in the corridors, glaring and whispering whenever he passed. Harry had arrived a little earlier than usual to meet Draco but wasn’t surprised to find the boy sitting against the wall, staring out of the window, off in to the moon light as he waited for him. Draco looked up as he entered and offered a small smile as he used his hands to push himself up from the floor, straightening his robes in a strangely comforting and familiar gesture Draco made his way over to Harry and without speaking gathered the smaller boy in his arms. Harry let out a breath he didn’t realise he had been holding and let his head rest against Draco’s shoulder visibly relaxing in his friends arms. Harry felt exhausted as he lifted his arms to wrap around Draco’s waist pulling his closer, he had been fighting to keep a strong face on in front of everyone since the first accusation had been thrown his way, even from Ron and Hermione as he didn’t want them to worry and they would if they could see how much he was suffering. He had let his guard down a little in front of Neville letting the timid boy know his feelings as they shared whispered conversations in the Gryffindor common room when their housemates had turned in for the night, but still he kept up some barriers knowing how much it would distress Neville to think of Harry feeling this way, and, Harry would never admit it but he was unsure what would get back to Blaise whether intentionally or otherwise. But for some reason, standing in Draco’s arms Harry felt himself break as he held him firmly , he felt a tear make its way down his cheek and, with a shaky breath, let the rest fall. His body shook as the tears he had bravely stored up fell freely on to his Slytherin’s shoulder, Draco made no comment and no move but to pull his friend tighter to his body, feeling helpless against the emotional onslaught, not knowing what to do for the best. Slowly, Draco bought his hand up and placed it on Harry’s head, cautiously running his fingers softly through the raven coloured hair and being rewarded as Harry relaxed in to his touch, without even thinking he lowered his head and placed a sweet, gentle kiss amidst the nest of black, resting there for a moment and then gently he pulled away to look at his friend. Harry’s eyes were still full of tears that were yet to fall and Draco’s heart gave a tug at the sight, he reached up and ran his thumb across Harry’s cheek to wipe away the tears that were resting there, he hated seeing Harry this way, he felt helpless  two conflicting emotions raged inside him, the strongest one being the one to comfort Harry, fighting  against  the need to hurt those who had hurt him, those who had caused the tears. Harry reached up and took the hand that Draco had left resting on his cheek, he kept hold as he led Draco back over to their spot at the wall and did not let go as they slid to the floor side by side.

‘No need to ask how you are,’ sighed Draco.

Harry offered a small smile and gave Draco’s hand a small squeeze. ‘It’s just hard when the whole school has decided I’m evil and I’m not even sure that I am not.’

Draco sighed, ‘Just to clarify, not the whole school!’ I don’t think it’s you, neither does Blaise or Neville, I can imagine Weasley and Granger don’t believe it and I’m sure the Weaslette is firmly on your side,’ he finished barely managing to hide his contempt .

‘I know,’ said Harry quietly, ‘ It’s just difficult, but I am looking forward to Christmas though , just the six of us, it will be kind of nice although I’m sure it may be a little strained .’

Draco snorted, ‘A little, I’m sure that’s an understatement, I still don’t know how you convinced me that this was a good idea, and for that matter Weasley too, I am still not happy with him you know.’

Harry suppressed another sigh, ‘ I know and I am grateful, to both of you, I know you are doing this for me and I love you for it.’ Draco’s head snapped around at Harry’s choice of words, not entirely sure he had heard them right, Draco played the words over again in his head, he knew, deep down, that Harry didn’t mean it in any other way than friendship, but still it had been surprisingly nice to hear. Draco wrapped an arm around Harry’s shoulders and pulled him close, wondering what it would take to hear those words again.

......

Christmas Eve came with a surprise form Neville. Harry was lazing around in bed in no mad rush to get up and face the day when he felt his pillow vibrate in the unique pattern of a four way message. Harry reached up behind his head and under his pillow to remove the parchment and quill with minimal movement, Harry raised his arms above his head and unfolded the parchment to read the message it contained;

_I have a surprise for you all._

_What is it Nev?_

_It wouldn’t be a surprise now would it._

_Longbottom I have no patience for surprises._

Harry smirked at Draco’s elegant script as Neville replied.

_Well come and meet me in the Trophy Room and I will tell you. Harry are you there?_

With a start Harry realised he had just been reading the conversation and had not even acknowledged his presence, hurriedly he turned on to his stomach and scrawled his reply of,

 _Yep be there in a sec_. Narrowly missing Draco’s reply;

_Harry, we really must discuss your penmanship._

......

The four boys met in the Trophy Room and before Neville could speak Draco snapped, ‘Well what is it?’

Neville was well used to Draco’s abrasive manner by now and merely chuckled at Draco’s impatience which caused the Slytherin in question to huff and fold his arms across his chest in a very un-Malfoy like manner.

‘Follow me.’ Neville said and left the room. He led the boys up to the seventh floor corridor and asked them to stand still for a moment, ignoring Draco’s muttered complaints about having to climb copious amounts of stairs for seemingly no good reason. Neville’s audience watched with varying levels of interest and confusion as the small boy paced backwards and forwards along the empty corridor in front of them, then suddenly, jaws dropped open and eyes grew wide as a large ornately carved door appeared on a previously blank section of the wall before them.  With a grin, Neville placed a hand on the door and gently pushed it open, he turned to the boys behind him, ‘Welcome to the Room of Requirement.

.....


	11. Christmas Eve

** 31\. Christmas Eve **

Harry followed Neville in to the spacious room that had just appeared from nowhere and looked around. They had walked in to a large well lit room decorated in neutral colours, various tones of beiges, browns and subtle gold’s threaded throughout. On one wall there was a large fire place surrounded by a huge ornate mantle, there was currently a brilliant fire burning in the grate throwing shadows across the walls around them. In front of the fire was a luxurious cream woollen rug that looked comfortable enough to lie on. On either side of the rug stood two overly large brown sofas littered with plump cushions, they looked ridiculously comfortable and Harry just wanted to try them out. The room was elegant and yet comfortable at the same time. But Harry’s wide eyes were drawn to the corner of the large room, there, reaching up to the ceiling was a beautiful Christmas Tree, its base as wide as its height, it was shimmering and glittering with fairy lights and candles, gold, red, green and silver baubles filled every available space as if the tree was making a nod to their house colours. Harry stood in awe, where had Neville found this place? As if reading his find he heard Draco clear his throat;

‘Neville, what is this place?’

‘Well like I said it’s the Room of Requirement.’

‘What?’ asked Blaise, ‘I have never heard of that before .’

‘Well I sort of named it that, let me explain.’

‘Go on Nev.’ Said Harry, as the group made their way over to the seating area, each Slytherin choosing to sit beside their respective Gryffindor.

‘Well,’ Neville started and then began to blush, ‘Go on Nev.’ Prompted Blaise, placing an arm around the boy’s shoulders.

‘It’s kind of embarrassing, but, well, the other day I was being chased...’

‘Chased?’ Draco asked glancing at Blaise questioningly, Blaise only raised an eyebrow to show that this was the first he had heard about it, ‘And who exactly was chasing you?’

Neville suddenly found the back of his hand very interesting, ‘Crabbe and Goyle.’ He said quietly.

Blaise fixed Draco with a meaningful glare, Draco sat back against the sofa crossing his legs at the ankles resting an arm along the back behind Harry, he gave a small nod, ‘Consider that sorted, anyway Neville please do continue.’

Neville gave a small smile, ‘So I was trying to find a place to hide and I ran into this deserted corridor and began to panic.’ At this Blaise gave the smaller boy a gentle squeeze and was rewarded with a smile from Neville. ‘ Anyway I was panicking at this point running backwards and forwards thinking that I just needed to find somewhere to hide and all of a sudden a door appeared before me, before I could think about it I heard voices so ran through the door, it locked behind me and there was a chair for me to sit, I stayed there a while and began to wonder where the room came from and why, and could I do it again, so I tried a few more things and the room appeared and became whatever I required , hence the name.’

As Neville had spoken Draco had become more and more interested in what he was saying and had leaned forward resting his elbows on his knees, ‘Anything?’

‘Yep, even a toilet at one point.’ Neville said with a blush rising in his cheeks.

‘How does it work?’

‘Well, you have to walk past the space where the door is three times thinking clearly about what you require from it and then it appears.’

Draco looked around him, ‘So what did you require this time?’ he asked with a small smile.

Neville smiled back, ‘I asked for somewhere to spend Christmas with my friends.’

Harry looked around at the other three boys and smiled, Neville was right, they really were friends, although he suspected Blaise and Neville were growing closer than friends, and, in that moment, it hit him, Harry’s eyes widened as he glanced at the back of the blonde head sitting next to him,  he played back their relationship through his mind as though he was watching a video, seeing it from the outside for the very first time and could see that they were no different from the two boys opposite them. Harry knew and had accepted that the way he felt about Draco was different from the way he felt about his other friends, he could not place that feeling before now, not really, not properly, but sitting here with his friends  and watching the small glances and interactions between Blaise and Neville, knowing they mirrored their own he knew exactly what it was, he was beginning to love Draco, or he thought he was, he wasn’t really sure what love was. He risked a glance at the blonde boy, whose features were lit by the fire light, tiny shadows lying across high cheek bones,  as he continued his animated conversation with Neville about the intricacies of the room they were sitting in and wondered if Draco felt the same. As if hearing the thought, Draco turned his head and smiled softly in his direction, Harry smiled back and imagined that it was a distinct possibility that he did.

.......

‘So how do you want to do this?’ Blaise asked the room in general.

‘What do you mean?’ asked Harry. He was currently curled up on the sofa, his head on Draco’s lap as long fingers stroked through his hair. He sighed contentedly and watched as Blaise tucked Neville under his arm pulling the small boy closer;

‘I mean, I want to spend Christmas in here with you guys, but I know we agreed to spend some of the time with Weasley and Granger, so we need to figure that out.’

Harry felt Draco’s hand still at the mention of Ron and squeezed the blonde’s knee in a show of understanding, ‘Well I know Ron is spending the night in the seventh year boys dorm with Percy and the twins, they are doing a family thing, opening their presents and fire calling their parents in Romania, so me and Nev have our dorm to ourselves, plus ‘Mione is spending Christmas Eve with Ginny in the first year dorms and has been invited to join the Weasleys for the morning, they did ask me but, well I think that they expected me to turn them down.’ Harry finished, closing his eyes to Draco’s touch.

‘Well that allows us all to spend tonight and the morning together without worry.’ Said Draco, ‘That is if that it was we all want.’

‘ I know I do,’ said Neville shyly , ‘As do I.’ Agreed Blaise.

‘Me too.’ Said Draco, ‘Harry?’

‘Mmm’ Harry mumbled as though he was half asleep, ‘Yeah, yeah of course.’ Draco smiled down at the small boy, ‘what that’s settled, we should stay in here.’

Blaise looked at him with a raised eyebrow ,

‘Well why not?’ Shrugged Draco, ‘I’m sure we could require beds, and it allows us to stay together without having to stay in one another’s rooms.’

‘I think that’s a good idea actually.’ Said Neville, ‘I have presents for you all it would be nice to put them under the tree tonight and open them together in the morning.’

Draco looked up at the Gryffindor in front of him with a small glint of respect and surprise in his eyes, Harry had badgered him to get something for Neville and now he was exceedingly glad that he had done.

‘Ok’ agreed Blaise, so we will stay here tonight, we should meet after dinner with our stuff.’

......

Harry and Neville reached the room first each carrying a bag with their gifts for the others and necessities such as tooth brushes. Neville paced the corridor thinking that he needed a place to spend Christmas Eve night with his friends , as the door appeared Harry wondered out loud what would appear on the other side, he carefully pushed the door open looked around , the room had practically remained the same apart from the two large four poster beds that dominated one wall.

‘Erm Nev why are there only two beds?’

Neville stared open mouthed at the beds, ‘I don’t know Harry, I asked for a place to stay with my friends tonight.’

Before Harry could answer the door swung open admitting the two Slytherin’s , Draco glanced approvingly around the room before making his way over to the boys and pulling Harry in to his arms for a hug. Harry smiled and allowed himself to be embraced as he waited for them to notice the unusual sleeping arrangements that the room had decided for them. Blaise noticed first and raised an eyebrow; ‘Two beds?’

Draco pulled back from Harry and took in the two large beds in front of him and said with a shrug;

‘They are plenty big enough for two I don’t mind sharing.’

Blaise turned fully to stare at his blonde friend, the blonde boy who he had known since birth, the boy who despised sharing anything with anybody. ‘What?’ asked Draco as he made his way over to the nearest bed and sat gracefully on the edge dropping his bag at his feet. He bounced slightly and pressed his palms in to the mattress, ‘Comfy enough, may as well sort the arrangements now, who wants to share with me?’ Neville swallowed and paled visibly, that was a definite no then, Harry did want to but didn’t want to seem too eager, plus he didn’t want to force Neville to share with Blaise if he didn’t feel comfortable so he was happy to have the decision made for him. Which it was a second later as Blaise announced that he would not be sharing a bed with the drool monster that was Draco Malfoy, Harry laughed at Draco’s indignant glare knowing full well what Blaise meant.

Harry affected a dramatic sigh, ‘Well looks like I have to suffer that then.’

Draco huffed and hurled a pillow at him before wrapping his arms across his chest in a petulant manner. Harry couldn’t help it, he launched himself at Draco, pinning him to the bed tickling him all over, vaguely he registered Blaise saying, ‘Well looks like that’s decided, what should we do now?’

.......

They had spent a lovely evening trading stories and jokes, with the occasional game of Wizard’s chess and exploding snap and were curled on their respective couches in front of a roaring fire when the first yawn was heard signalling it was time for bed.  Draco stood and stretched his arms high above his head, ‘right well I’m ready to turn in.’

Blaise nodded and stood, ‘Me too, come on Nev.’ He reached down and pulled the yawning boy from the couch by his hand, he tucked Neville under his arm and led him to the bed they were sharing, he helped him in then followed suit, curling his long body around the smaller one in front of him, leaving Draco looking down at the almost sleeping boy on the couch.

‘Come on Harry, time for bed.’

‘K Drake, I’m coming.’ Harry mumbled as he struggled to his feet, Draco chuckled and helped his friend, tucking him under his arm just as Blaise had done with Neville, he led Harry to their bad and sat him down on the edge, turning the bed covers back as he did so. Harry smiled sleepily up at him and Draco felt his hurt flutter, what was it about this boy? Draco dreaded to think what his Father would say if he could see him now, he shook his head almost imperceptibly trying to banish any thoughts of Lucius and climbed in beside Harry.

Harry was awake in an instant, he had gone from sleepy to alert as Draco had climbed in to the bed beside him. He felt as though every nerve in his body was alive as he tensed at Draco’s every move, he didn’t understand, he had shared a bed with Draco before, what on earth was up with him? Draco rolled over to face him, he threw an arm across Harry and pulled him closer, sleepily not noticing that Harry was more tense than usual. Harry felt a heat in his body in all the places that Draco was Touching him, this, this was different, and not really in a bad way. Harry turned his head to look at the blonde next to him, the blonde hair he liked so much was splayed across the pillow, it looked so much like a halo that Harry had to stifle a chuckle at that thought imagining what Draco would have to say about that. He looked at the pale eyelashes that rested on Draco’s cheeks and sighed, he relaxed against the body next to him, ‘I do,’ he admitted quietly to himself, ‘I love him.’

Draco’s eyes snapped open and met startled green ones, Harry had obviously thought him asleep when he had confessed his love for someone. Draco’s stomach was churning, he felt sick, he had to swallow to stop the bile from rising, the last thing he had wanted to hear, on Christmas Eve, cuddled up in bed with Harry was that he loved someone else. He was young, he knew that, but he understood what love was, he had heard Pansy whimper on about it enough, she had explained how it felt from Veela romance novels she had read and all the girly magazines that he had stolen and read in secret, he wanted Harry to feel that for him and not for some other boy. He swallowed hard and decided that he needed to know, hoping that Harry wasn’t talking about Weasley or even that Creevey kid, ‘Who?’ he asked, wincing as his voice cracked slightly.

‘Who, what?’ Harry asked, panicking slightly because Draco had heard him.

Draco swallowed again, ‘Who is it you love?’ He shut his eyes as though that could prevent the answer hurting him.

Harry looked at the blonde boy in front of him, he could almost feel the pain and hurt radiating off him, he sighed, ‘I don’t know, I don’t know what love is really, I’m still a kid how am I supposed to know?’

Draco opened his eyes once more, ‘You must have an idea though, something made you say that.’

‘I’ve heard the word, have heard the girls describe it and it sort of feels like that, you know, different, stronger than friends but just as nice’.

Draco tensed up, he felt that way about Harry, and now Harry was about to tell him he felt that way about someone else, he let out a breath and felt his arm tense across Harry’s chest, ‘So erm, who is it that you think, you know, I mean,’ Draco felt ridiculous, he had never been so inarticulate in his life, he swallowed and once more closed his eyes, ‘so who is he then?’ he managed to ask. Harry watched in wonder as Draco struggled through his question, as Draco closed his eyes he turned on to his side to face the boy, he swallowed hard and summoned the famous Gryffindor pride as he placed a hand on Draco’s cheek, Draco’s eyes flew open in question as Harry answered, ‘You, you daft bloody git,’ before pressing a chaste kiss to Draco’s lips.


	12. Christmas Morning

** Christmas Morning. **

Draco woke on Christmas morning with a huge smile on his face, he lay there warm in his bed reliving the events of the previous evening, Harry loved him, plain and simple, Draco was loved, by Harry Potter, he recalled how Harry had taken him completely by surprise Draco had truly believed that he was about to hear another boys name and have his heart broken, but no, it had been him. Harry had laughed at him, kindly of course asking who exactly he thought it could be if not him, Draco smiled in remembrance at the way Harry had snorted at the mention of the Creevey boy and shaken his head in disbelief affectionately calling Draco an idiot, and then, he, Draco Malfoy had happily fallen asleep in Harry’s arms on Christmas Eve. It had decidedly been a vast improvement on the previous one, in fact probably one of his best ones in memory. Waking up on Christmas morning to find Harry curled around him, his chest pressed firmly against Draco’s back, his face almost buried in Draco’s hair, was the best feeling ever, but it still did not beat the feeling Draco got when he had realised that Harry had been talking about him the previous evening. Draco almost glowed at the memory, and as he lay there he felt the Gryffindor in question stirring behind him and rolled over to face him, he watched as those beautiful green eyes open blinking in the early morning light. Harry smiled when he caught sight of Draco lying just inches from his face;

‘Mornin’

‘Good morning Harry, how did you sleep?’ asked Draco, unable to keep a huge grin from his face.

Harry easily returned the smile with a warm one of his own, ‘The best ever thanks .’ he mumbled as he wrapped his free arm around Draco and pulled him closer pressing a small kiss on to Draco’s lips. A warm, content feeling spread through Draco, starting from deep in his stomach as he pulled Harry close, bringing their noses in contact with each other and Draco never wanted to move.He could quite happily stay where he was forever.

......

 Harry swallowed hard and looked in to the dazzling silver eyes before him;

‘Drake?’

‘Mmm?’

‘Can I? I mean this probably sounds strange, well, what I mean is?’

Draco watched Harry closely and noticed a pink tinge creep across his cheeks, he gave him a little squeeze, ‘Go on, ‘ he encouraged.

Harry did not understand why this was so hard, it was a simple question, albeit one that would make or break his Christmas and possibly even his heart, he swallowed again and dipped his eyes to stare at Draco’s chest, ‘Will you, I mean do you want to be my boyfriend?’ Harry almost whispered too, nervous to look up so missing the look of surprise and then pure happiness that crossed Draco’s features.

Draco’s eyes grew wide as he processed what Harry had just asked, he watched as Harry grew uncomfortable under his gaze and lift his  eyes  in a questioning glance, he could see that they were filled with fear and knew exactly what it had taken for Harry to ask that question.  He swallowed the lump that had formed in his throat and nodded slighty, ‘Ok.’ He said.

‘Ok?’ Harry asked.

‘Ok, I will be your boyfriend.’

Harry’s smile grew almost to the width of his face as he pulled Draco close again and once more planted a kiss on those pink lips. ‘Merry Christmas Drake.’ He whispered.

‘Merry Christmas Harry.’

......

The two boys had spent a leisurely half an hour whispering to each other and revelling in their new found relationship when they heard muffled talking from the next bed. On hearing this Draco sat bolt upright in bed and shouted across; ‘Morning, Merry Christmas, can we open presents now?’ Harry laughed as a pillow was launched across the room and hit Draco squarely in the face. ‘Hey’ Draco said indignantly huffing and hurling the pillow back,’ come on its Christmas I want to open my presents, I want to know what I got.’

‘Draco, shut the hell up,’ grumbled Blaise from under the covers in the other bed.

‘Blaaaaaaaaaaaaiiiiiissssssssseeeeeeeeeeeee.’ Whined Draco, ‘C’mon,it’s Chrriiiiiiisssssssssssttttttttmmmmmmmmmaaaaaaaaaaaasssssssssss.’ Draco dragged the word out as he stuck out his bottom lip, ‘ I want my presents.’ Harry couldn’t help but chuckle at the perfect picture of a spoiled brat his new boyfriend was making. However he also wanted to get to the presents and knew what would get Neville moving, the delicious selection of baked goods that were a sure thing from Ron’s mum, ‘Nev you ‘wake?’ he said to the other lump in the bed.

‘Mmmm.’ Came a muffled sound from the other bed.

‘Wanna see what Mrs Weasley sent me?’ Harry said with a devious twinkle in his eye.

As if by magic Neville sat up, rubbing his eyes sleepily, and nodded. ‘Traitor,’ Blaise grumbled good naturedly, wrapping a long arm around Neville’s waist and pulling him back down on to the bed. ‘Sleep now, presents later yeah,’ Blaise sleepily mumbled. Draco had had enough, he got out of bed and stomped over towards the sleepy pair, he grabbed hold of their blankets and in one swift tug had pulled them off the bed and on to the floor. Before Draco had time to take a step backwards Blaise jumped up and threw himself at Draco narrowly missing the blonde, who squeaked indignantly and ran to hide behind his boyfriend who had just climbed from the bed and was currently laughing loudly at the two Slytherins, ‘Malfoy, I swear to god.’ Blaise seethed under his breath. Harry valiantly stood his ground between the two boys causing Draco to smirk at his friend over the Gryffindor’s shoulder. Blaise growled and made another lunge at Draco when Neville spoke from behind him, ‘We are up now Blaise we should just do presents.’ At hearing Neville’s voice Blaise stopped trying to get at Draco and with a final growl in his direction he turned and followed the small boy over to the Christmas tree. Draco chuckled, ‘Big Blaisey tamed by an ickle Gryffindor who would have guessed.’ Harry gave Draco a warning glare as they walked over to the tree, Draco promptly stopped speaking but the irony was not lost on anyone.

......

‘What on earth is that Potter?’ Blaise asked, wide eyed as he watched Harry pull his Weasley jumper on over his pyjamas.

‘Well obviously it’s a jumper Zabini,’ replied Harry coolly as he smoothed his hands over the golden ‘H’ on his jumper.

‘It’s an offense to my senses is what it is.’

‘Oh do be quiet Blaise,’Draco said waving a hand absently in his direction.

‘Yeah Blaise leave him alone,’ The trio of boys turned and stared at Neville as he spoke up in Harry’s defence , ‘What?’ he said with a shrug, ‘I like it.’

Harry smiled at his friend as they continued opening their presents sitting under the gigantic Christmas tree.

......

‘So, who’s going first?’

‘How about we all exchange one so everyone has one?’

‘That’s sounds good to me.’

‘I want to save Harry’s until last.’

‘Yeah I’d like to do Draco’s last.’

‘That’s ok I want to give Blaise his last anyway.’

‘Yeah same here, here you go Draco.’

‘Thanks and one for you Blaise.’

‘Here you go Harry.’

‘Cheers Nev, here ya go.’

And then there was silence apart from the tearing of paper.

‘Harry you shouldn’t have , ‘Neville said as he held up a large, old looking book. ‘What is it?’ asked Blaise peering curiously at the book.

‘It’s one of the very first books ever published about Herbology, first edition and..oh my, signed by the author. Harry this is too much, where on earth did you get this?’

Harry just smiled, ‘I have my ways, and it is not too much I owe you for so much.’ Teary eyed Neville leaned over and gave Harry a one armed hug as he was still clasping the book in the other. ‘Thanks’ he whispered, a little overwhelmed, he had never really had friends that bought him gifts before, he felt so happy and content right now. He sighed and turned to Blaise, ‘So what did Draco get you?’

Blaise looked down at the package in his lap and hastily finished unwrapping it. ‘Is this the one I saw in Diagon Alley?’ he asked as he lifted a pure silk cloak from its wrappings. He ran his eyes over it appraisingly as Draco nodded in the affirmative, ‘Thank you I appreciate it.’ Blaise said as he carefully refolded the cloak. Harry and Neville exchanged a glance at the cold exchange, Harry raised an eyebrow which Neville returned with a small smile, they knew what the Slytherin’s were like it just didn’t mean they were used to it yet.

‘So Harry what did Nev get you?’ Blaise asked casually.

Harry removed the last of the wrappings and picked up the funny looking booklet from his lap. Harry opened the booklet as his eyes grew to the size of saucers, he leafed through the rest of the booklet and nearly choked at what he saw. ‘Nev? How?’ Harry’s reaction caused Draco to lean over to take the booklet from him, ‘Hey?’ Harry’s head snapped up, he snatched the book back and clutched it possessively to his chest throwing an evil look in his boyfriend’s direction for good measure.

‘So what is it Harry?’ Draco asked sulkily.

Harry looked at Neville with a huge grin on his face, ‘ It’s a book of vouchers, one free Treacle Tart every month for a year, way to go Nev that is one amazing present.’

‘I don’t understand,’ said Blaise looking genuinely confused, ‘You can get Treacle Tart any time you want, for free, from school.’

‘Yes,’ Harry said patiently in a way that suggested he was about to explain something very complicated to somebody very stupid. ‘but that is ordinary Treacle Tart, this is the best Treacle Tart ever, in the whole world ever, it’s exquisite, homemade, mouth watering, to die for...’

‘Ok ok I get it.’ Blaise said quickly cutting Harry off full flow, ‘Draco show them what I got you.’

Draco carefully removed the last of the wrapping from the small parcel in his lap. He blinked and then looked up at his friend, not quite sure what to say, this present was unprecedented between them, it was emotional and nothing like they had shared before, he swallowed the lump forming in his throat and passed the present across to Harry.

‘Wow,’ Harry said quietly, ‘Where did you get that? I don’t remember that being taken, it’s beautiful.’

Blaise cleared his throat, ‘ Well Nev took it for me, in the trophy room, one of the times you both got so lost in each other that you forgot we were there.’ He said with a smirk. At that Harry blushed and looked down again at the photograph in his hands. Surrounded by an intricate silver frame was a photograph of him and Draco just looking at each other and smiling, it was so natural, Harry couldn’t tear his eyes away. Blaise chuckled, ‘Here Potter,’ he said passing a package over to Harry, ‘Might as well have yours too.’ Harry tore through the packaging to see an identical photograph staring up at him from a plainer gold frame, but one that was decidedly more Harry. ‘Thanks so much,’ Harry said quietly, ‘No problem’, returned Blaise just as quietly.

Draco cleared his throat and passed Neville a package. Neville took his time opening the carefully wrapped present, still not entirely believing that Draco had got him something. Neville’s hands brushed against something incredibly soft as he lifted his present up to show the others. Draco had gifted him with a set of light grey, cashmere gloves and a matching scarf. ‘They’re lovely Malfoy, thank you.’ Draco just shrugged, ‘I heard your others had has a slight mishap.’

At this news Blaise raised an eyebrow, Draco dismissed him with a wave of his hand, ‘As I said Blaise, consider it dealt with, anyway Longbottom I’m glad you like them.’

‘ I do thanks Malfoy.’ Neville said offering the blonde a small smile.

Blaise cleared his throat as he looked over at Harry and Draco, ‘So I think, if Nev doesn’t mind, I’d like to exchange our gifts in private.’ A slight blush crossed Neville’s cheek as Draco nodded in agreement, ‘Ok well I’d be quite happy to go and sit on the bed with Harry to exchange our gifts.’

‘That’s fine with me.’ Said Harry reaching under the tree for his gift for Draco and making his way over to the sleeping area, Draco got up and stretched, reaching to collect his own gift he followed Harry and joined his boyfriend sitting cross-legged on the bed.

.....

‘I didn’t know how to top last year.’ Harry started as he handed the messily wrapped parcel over to Draco. Draco smiled, ‘I don’t care, all presents are great and presents from you are even better,’ he then began pulling the paper off. His eyes grew wide as they fell on the hidden treasure within, Draco was lost for words, this was something that he would have never thought to get for himself, he had never owned anything like it in his life. In his lap lay a stuffed toy, a stuffed toy that was a snow-white lion cub, a perfect replica, apart from the eyes, the eyes were a piercing Emerald Green, an exact match to Harry’s, Draco stroked the head of the small lion and his body filled with warmth. Harry worried his bottom lip as he watched Draco with his present, ‘Do you like it?’

Draco looked in to Harry’s eyes, ‘Harry, I love it, the eyes? How?’

‘It’s custom made, with a spell to replicate a person’s eyes, I wasn’t sure you would like it , but the witch in the shop insisted, kept on going on about how unique they are.’

Draco chuckled, ‘I’m glad you did.’

Harry suddenly blushed a deep crimson and Draco raise an inquisitive eyebrow. Harry coughed a little and suddenly found is cuticles extremely interesting, ‘Well, there is something else, I wasn’t entirely sure at the time but the bloody witch insisted, then I figured that I didn’t have to tell you, but, here..’ at this Harry lifted the lion cub to Draco’s face, ‘sniff’ he said quietly. Draco once again raised an eyebrow but did as he was told, his eyes widened as he realised what he could smell, ‘Harry’ he said quietly, ‘This smells so like you if I close my eyes I would swear it was you.’ Harry shrugged, ‘Another spell, sorry she insisted.’ Harry said with another shrug. Draco looked over at the embarrassed Harry and smiled softly, he raised on to his knees and planted a soft kiss on Harry’s lips, ‘I absolutely love it , thanks, just... just don’t tell anyone I own it.’ Harry smirked at this, ‘Deal’ he said.  ‘Anyway where’s mine?’ he said holding out his hand. Draco smiled, still clinging to his Lion cub and handed Harry his gift.

......

‘Draco, I love it,’ Harry said as he jumped up, wrapping his arms around the Slytherin’s neck and knocking him down onto the bed, ‘umpf’ was the noise Draco made as he had the wind knocked out of him. Harry laughed and braced himself on his arms to allow Draco to breathe. Draco looked up in to smiling eyes, ‘Well I’m glad you like it.’

‘I do, what made you get it?’

‘I spotted it and it just reminded me on you so much.’

‘Of me?’

‘Yeah look at the fire in its eyes, you know it looks like it could defeat a dark lord once or twice you know.’

Harry chuckled at this, ‘ hopefully only once or twice, that is plenty thank you.’

Draco smiled, ‘I know what you mean, I’m with you on that one.’

‘Come on,’ Harry said smiling down at Draco ‘we need to get ready.’ He climbed off the bed, ‘We have to meet Hermione and Ron soon.’ Luckily he was facing the other way and missed the disgusted look on Draco’s face at the mention of Ron.

Draco watched Harry walk over to the bedside table and place the wooden statue of a grown dragon, fierce and proud, standing, wings spread proudly surveying its surroundings, a wooden statue that Harry would never know Draco had painstakingly carved himself by hand.

......


	13. Christmas Night

** Christmas Night. **

‘Well this is....’

‘Erm.. yeah.’

‘Uncomfortable, for pity’s sake the word is uncomfortable.’

‘Drake you said you would behave,’

‘Oh believe me I am.’

‘Oh that’s behaving is it Malfoy..’

‘Ronald will you please be quiet.’

‘But Mione.’

‘Ron c’mon mate.’

‘Fine ... whatever.’

‘So erm ... who wants to play a game?’

‘What exactly do you have in mind?’

‘Truth or dare?’

......

Draco had found himself in the unenviable position of being completely surrounded by Gryffindor’s, okay so Blaise was there too but that really wasn’t the point. It was how he promised Harry that he would spend Christmas afternoon and he was sorely regretting it. After a luxurious Christmas dinner in The Great Hall he and Blaise had been escorted, by their respective Gryffindor’s,  to an abandoned classroom where Hermione was waiting with the Weasel. Hermione had greeted him with a huge hug, thanking him profusely for the rare charms text he had given her for Christmas, although he was slightly uncomfortable with Hermione’s attentions he had relented once he had seen the green pallor of Weasley’s skin at their showing of affection and gave the witch a squeeze back.

......

The six students were sitting cross legged on the floor of the classroom in a small circle, Ron was sitting across from Harry with Hermione on one side and Neville on the other, Harry was opposite Blaise sitting between him and Neville and Draco between him and Hermione, the atmosphere could hardly be called jolly;

‘So what’s truth and dare?’ Draco asked his boyfriend.

‘Truth or dare, Drake, not truth and dare, it’s a muggle game...’

‘A muggle game?’ Draco asked sounding only slightly affronted that he had been asked to play a muggle game.

‘Yes Drake,’ Harry said with a sigh, ‘Just hear me out, ok, so we each take turns asking another person whether they want a truth or a dare, then you either ask them a question they can’t lie to or they have to do whatever you tell them.’

‘Ok, I get it, so how do you know if they really are being honest?’ Draco asked genuinely curious, he looked around at the three other pureblood wizards in the room and could see the look reflected back at him. Hermione spoke up, ‘That is where I come in, I am going to cast a charm I looked at over the summer, a lie detector, if you lie your hair turns bright pink with green spots.’

‘Hermione that is barbaric.’ Said Draco from her side, visibly paling at the thought. A slow smile spread across Hermione’s face, ‘so don’t lie.’ She said sweetly.

‘Ok,’ said Harry, ‘I’m going to spin my wand the person it points to gets to ask first ready?’

With that he leaned in to the middle of the circle, placed his wand on the floor and span it around. After a few seconds the wand slowed and landed on Neville. Neville looked up in to the eager eyes of his friends and gulped, he raised his brown eyes and looked around the circle wondering who to ask.

‘Malfoy’ he said, ‘Truth or dare?’

Draco looked up, silver eyes full of shock, he wasn’t sure what to do, he swallowed, ‘Truth?’ he said sticking his nose slightly in the air, attempting to affect an air of indifference.

‘Erm, ok, so, what’s your favourite subject?’

Across the circle Ron groaned, ‘That’s so boring Nev come on.’

‘Too late Weasley he’s asked,’ sniffed Draco, ‘The answer is Transfiguration.’he said haughtily.

Several mouths fell open around the circle , until Hermione finally spoke ‘I thought it was Potions,’

Draco shrugged, ‘Nope, that is just what I am best at, however Transfiguration holds my interest the most, so do I get to ask now?’

.....

The game continued in that way for a while until they all knew each other’s favourite subjects and colours until it was Draco’s turn once more.

......

‘Your turn Draco,’ Hermione said with a nod, ‘ who do you want to ask?’

‘Blaise’ he answered, ‘Truth or dare?’

Blaise looked up at his silver eyed friend with barely disguised concern, he was met with a trademark smirk.

‘Truth I think,’ Blaise said as he swallowed nervously.

‘Ok,’ Draco took a moment to pretend to think, ‘ so which of the professors do you think is nice looking?’ Draco asked with a smirk.

Blaise paled and his eyes darted nervously in the direction of Ron who was sat with a huge grin on his face at the chance to hear a Slytherin humiliated.

‘Draco I told you that in confidence you snake,’ Blaise practically hissed at his best friend. Draco smirked and examined his finger nails, ‘That’s the game Blaise, you don’t have to answer.’

Blaise growled lowly and stole a glance at Neville who simply smiled sweetly at him, Blaise sighed resignedly ,’Snape,’ he said in a low voice as he felt heat rising in his cheeks, ‘as well you know Draco.’

‘You like Snape!’ spluttered Ron, ‘But he’s a man, but that means ...’ The rest of the sentence was left unsaid as Ron stared, open-mouthed at Blaise.

‘Well done genius,’ snapped Draco ‘give the boy a coconut.’ Harry swiped at Draco’s head but a small smile could be seen creeping on to his face as Ron opened and closed his mouth until Neville elbowed him, quite harshly, in the ribs.

Hermione looked a little flustered at Blaise’s confession but decided to move on with the game and cleared her throat, ‘so Blaise, your turn.’

‘Ok,’ Blaise nodded and looked at each of the students around him, ‘now who to choose as my victim,’ he caught Draco’s eye and smirked , ‘Harry’ he said, ‘truth or dare?’

Harry looked nervously at Draco and answered ‘ Dare?’ although it came out as more of a question than a statement. At his answer Blaise’s smirk grew wider, ‘Ok, let me see, I dare you to sit on Weasley’s knee for the next four questions.’ Blaise said this without taking his eyes from Draco and witnessed the dangerous look appearing in his friend’s eye at the dare. Blaise did not mind, he could handle Draco.

‘Hey,’ shouted Ron, ‘How is that fair on me, I’m not doing that’ he crossed his arms across his chest and huffed loudly, Hermione patted him on the arm gently, ‘come on Ron it’s not for long and it’s only Harry, you need to do it for the game.’ Ron looked up and caught Harry’s eye, he smiled apologetically at his outburst worried he might have offended his friend with is reaction but then he noticed the peculiar shade of red Draco was turning and the way he was glaring at Blaise with murder in his eyes and wondered if it was because of the dare, did Draco have a crush on Harry? Oh that was priceless. Ron beamed across the circle at Harry and patted his lap, ‘Come and get yourself comfy Harry,’ he said as Harry crawled towards him, Ron chanced a glance at Draco and was rewarded with the iciest glare he had ever received from the blonde. Ron decided he was going to make the most of this opportunity, reaching out he grabbed Harry’s hand and pulled him in to his lap, Harry was a lot shorter than him but in his lap he was blocking is view of the circle, watching Draco carefully out of the corner of his eye he wrapped his arms around Harry’s middle and pulled him closer resting his chin on Harry’s shoulder, ‘There’ he said,’ That’s better, I can see now.’ Ron grinned around the circle and caught wide silver eyes staring at him with ill concealed shock, oh this was brilliant, Ron turned his head slightly and whispered to Harry, ‘Sorry mate hope this isn’t too weird and don’t forget I like girls,’ he said teasingly causing Harry to turn his head slightly and smile at the red head and shake his head slightly in exasperation. Ron was acutely aware of what this must look like to Draco and he couldn’t but shoot a smirk at the glowering Slytherin. He had found a way to get to the blonde and he was loving every minute.

Hermione meanwhile was trying, once again to continue the game, ‘So Harry’ she said, fully aware of the dangerous game Ron was playing, who are you going to ask ?’

Harry thought for a moment , ‘You I think ‘Mione. Truth or Dare?’

Hermione thought for a second, ‘Truth I think.’

Harry smiled at his friend, ‘Ok what is the lowest grade you have ever received?’

Hermione suddenly went very pink and began to fiddle with the hem of her dress, she lowered her head and the pink slowly crept up to the tips of her ears as she said quietly, ‘a C, I answered the wrong question, it should have been a fail but the answer was so good it got a grade even though it should have been a fail, I don’t want to talk about it anymore can I ask Neville now?’ Hermione sped through her answer and looked around the circle as she finished daring them to challenge her.

Harry nodded at his friend and he did feel a little for her, ‘Ok Neville Truth or dare?’ Hermione asked, her colour slowly returning back to normal.

Neville glanced nervously around the room, ‘Erm, truth?’ he asked.

Hermione tilted her head to one side in thought, ‘Do you like boys or girls?’ she asked and then instantly regretted it as Neville turned bright red and shot a questioning glance in Harry’s direction, she had thought this would be an easy, simple one that would not give Neville too much trouble and now it looks as though she had inadvertently ‘outed’ him to their friends, ‘It’s ok Nev don’t answer.’ Neville looked at her, his eyes filled with fear and she wanted to kick herself, ‘No’ he said quietly, ‘I’ll answer, the answer is boys,’ he finished shooting a glance at Blaise. Hermione noticed this and filed the piece of information away for a later date.

From Harry’s shoulder Ron gave a low whistle, ‘Wow you too?’ he asked earning a sharp dig in the ribs from Harry. Ron took this opportunity to once again whisper in Harry’s ear, ‘Sorry mate, I feel like the only straight in the village in here though,’ this caused Harry to snort with laughter and Draco to shoot another death glare in Ron’s direction. Ron gave Harry a squeeze and sent a broad grin in the Slytherin’s direction.

Hermione was busy apologising to Neville and he was busy reassuring her, Blaise poked him in the arm, ‘Your turn Nev.’

‘Ok, Malfoy, I want another chance to do a better one, truth or dare.’

At this point Draco was slightly worried about the truth’s that were emerging so opted for a dare.

‘I dare you to mess up your hair and leave it that way for the rest of the game.’

‘I do not think so.’ Draco snapped as he crossed his arms across his chest.

‘What are you chicken?’ Ron asked from behind Harry. Draco glared at the red head for several silent seconds before, begrudgingly lifting his hand to his head and rubbing it vigorously side to side until his hair tangled and stood on end. He glared at Neville who swallowed and scooted back slightly. Draco was seriously annoyed now, his hair was a mess, he was sitting cross-legged on a cold dusty floor surrounded by idiots and to top it off his boyfriend was looking entirely too comfortable sitting in the red-headed buffoons lap, he could see Weasley whispering in to Harry’s ear and squeezing the smaller boy and, quite frankly he was ready to rip off his head. He had had enough, he wanted Harry back by his side, he was going to kill Blaise for this, and he wanted to humiliate Weasley, this buffoon was never going to learn that messing with him was a bad idea, a very bad idea. He turned and smirked in Ron’s direction, ‘Weasley, truth or dare?’

Ron swallowed at the glint in Draco’s eye and felt truth was the safest way to go, he would not put it past Draco to dare him to throw himself out of a window and he was not sure how far Hermione’s rules extended regarding personal safety.

Draco smiled when Ron answered truth, ‘Do you have a crush on Hermione?’

Ron spluttered indignantly and turned an interesting shade of post box red and, before he could stop himself he answered, ‘No.. what? .. I mean, of course I don’t it’s Mione.’

At his outburst Hermione had turned to look at him feeling slightly offended and a little upset, Ron met her eyes and winced, he was such an idiot sometimes.

......

Hermione had had a secret crush on Ron, pretty much since the day they had met, he had behaved like an idiot on several occasions but she still couldn’t seem to feel any different towards him. She had been nervous when Draco had asked his question hoping that Ron would say yes and they could maybe talk, but when he had denied it so vehemently she had been devastated, she looked at the red-head next to her and saw apology in his brown eyes but it didn’t help, that had hurt. As she watched Ron and contemplated their friendship she saw something that made her jaw drop, slowly, from the roots, Ron’s hair was turning bubblegum pink, he had lied, he did like her, she was ridiculously happy and couldn’t stop the grin from spreading across her face, maybe they could talk after all.

....

Ron watched as Hermione’s eyes grew wide and then a huge grin spread across her face, he had to admit he was a little hurt at her smiling, he had liked her for a while now and he was a little hurt to see her smiling at him not liking her, even though he did, but she didn’t know that... at that thought Ron stopped dead. He looked around the circle and every one of the others was staring wide eyed at him, Harry turned in his lap to see what everyone was staring at.

‘Erm mate?’

Ron looked at Harry at caught his reflection is his best friend’s round spectacles, of course, Hermione’s charm, he was now sporting pink hair with big green spots, Merlin knew how long that would be that way. Ron felt his cheeks heating up as he turned back towards Hermione who flashed him a small smile, he guessed that was a good sign. Ron looked around the circle and caught the silver eyes of a smirking Draco Malfoy, ‘Git,’ muttered Ron under his breath.

‘Right Malfoy,’ he said out loud, ‘Truth or dare?’

Draco glared at Ron and accepted the challenge, ‘Truth’ he said in a dangerous tone which Ron duly ignored.

Ron took this opportunity to humiliate Draco, knowing what he thought he knew he smiled smugly, (as smugly as someone with pink hair can ) and asked ‘Do you have a crush on Harry?’ as a huge smile spread across his face.

 Ron watched, expecting embarrassment, denial, violence and perhaps even pink hair but what he got surprised him. Slowly Draco got up and took the three steps he needed to cross the circle, he squatted in front of Ron so they were eye to eye, he turned his head slightly to Hermione and smiled sweetly, ‘Am I right in thinking that was four questions.’ Hermione  inclined her head slightly to say yes, watching the Slytherin warily. A small smile appeared on Draco’s face as he turned, once again, to look at Ron, ‘Good,’ Draco said with a smile ‘Weasley would you mind ever so much getting your sweaty paws from off my boyfriend?’ Draco asked politely with a somewhat sinister smile. Ron’s mouth dropped open,  he looked at Harry hoping for, well help or denial or anything really, but got nothing in response, meanwhile Draco had stood and was holding his hand out to Harry, Harry turned and offered Ron a somewhat guilty smile and accepted Draco’s hand. As the couple walked back to their spots in the circle, Draco looked over his shoulder at the, once again, red-faced, lost for words, Weasley;

‘Oh by the way Weasley, the answer to your last question is, of course, yes.’


	14. Valentine's Day

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There will be quite a passage of time in this chapter obviously the Polyjuice never happened, but, during this time, Ron and Harry find the diary as happened in canon (Myrtle’s flooded bathroom) Also this is quite a short chapter but I feel that it needed to end where it did so sorry about that 

** Valentine’s Day. **

‘Boyfriend,’ Ron spluttered for what had to be the tenth time as he and Hermione made their way back to the Gryffindor common room, ‘Boyfriend?’

‘Ron will you shut up,’ snapped an extremely exasperated Hermione.

‘But ‘Mione.. boyfriend, Malfoy said boyfriend.’

Hermione whirled round to face Ron stopping him in his tracks, ‘I am fully aware of what he said Ronald, I was there remember, sat right there, next to you.’

Ron stared open mouthed at the fiery tempered witch, ‘but..’ he began.

‘Ronald Weasley don’t you dare say it again. I am sick of hearing it, why are you talking about them when we should be talking about us? I have had enough.’ With that she stomped off leaving an opened mouthed Ron Weasley in her wake.

......

Harry was 12, he was a 12 year old boy and for that reason alone he felt quite sick at the sight that greeted him as he entered the Great Hall on February 14th.  Ok, so he had a boyfriend of almost two months and things were going really well thank you very much, even though it was secret to all but five other people. He was happy and yes he and Draco had agreed to meet that night and exchange gifts, but that did not mean that he wanted his senses assaulted first thing in the morning by vast amounts of pink, red and bloody frills, he was almost put off his breakfast. Harry stared around the Great Hall with his mouth wide open and instantly regretted it as his eyes fell on the lurid pink figure of Professor Lockheart, Harry visibly shuddered, then it got worse, then came the dwarves.

......

All day long, the dwarfs kept barging in to their classes.. and eventually one caught up with Harry..

‘Oy, you! ‘Arry Potter!’

Harry tried to escape. The dwarf, however, cut his way through the crowd by kicking people’s shins, and reached him before he’d gone two paces.

‘I’ve got a musical message to deliver to ‘Arry Potter in person.’

‘Not here,’ Harry hissed as he tried and failed to escape. The dwarf grabbed hold of Harry’s bag and, with a loud ripping noise, his bag split in two. The entire contents spilled onto the floor and his ink bottle smashed over the whole lot.

‘What’s going on here?’ came the cold, drawling voice that Harry knew so well, Harry felt his cheeks heat up, ‘Wonderful,’ he thought as the blonde head of his boyfriend appeared from around the corner. It had never crossed Harry’s mind that Draco had sent a violent dwarf after him to sing at him thus humiliating Harry in front of the whole school, he knew it wasn’t him it wasn’t his style and he was sure Draco wouldn’t do that to him, but that knowledge just made the whole situation ten times worse, knowing his boyfriend was watching as another person’s valentine was forced upon him was not the nicest feeling. Harry scrambled madly at his belongings, trying to throw them in to his bag and proceeding to scatter them further in the process he wanted to get the dwarf away, far away he especially did not need or want Draco to hear whatever it was going to sing.

‘What’s all this commotion?’ said another familiar voice, as Percy Weasley arrived.

That was the last straw, losing his head, Harry tried to make a run for it , but the dwarf seized him around the knees and brought him crashing to the floor.

‘Right,’ he said, sitting on Harry, ‘here is your singing valentine.’

.......

Draco had watched the situation with rising interest and also slight worry for Harry, this was reflected in the rising of his eyebrows, which seemed to steadily climb higher as the scene unfolded before him. Arms folded across his chest he watched as his boyfriend grappled on the floor with a dwarf that looked decidedly murderous, Draco was unsure how to proceed, watching the dwarf carefully in case it actually hurt Harry. He was standing , weighing up the pros and cons of intervening when the dwarf began to sing, an ungodly tune that assaulted Draco’s very being. Draco’s eyes narrowed, who had the nerve to send his boyfriend a valentine? Granted no one outside their close circle of friends knew but that was hardly the point. He listened to the lyrics in disgust ‘Fresh pickled toad?’ what ridiculous prose, Harry was in no way like a toad, who on earth had come up with that, his eyes were like shining emeralds, toad, really, people had no sense,. With a shake of his head Draco continued to listen; ‘I wish he was mine,’ at that Draco screwed his eyes shut to keep a lid on his anger, he is not yours he thought angrily, he never will be, Harry his mine, how dare you. Draco took a deep breath and opened his eyes once more only to catch the eye of his boyfriend who currently looked as though he wanted the ground to swallow him whole and his gaze softened, clearly Harry was as happy with this situation as he was, Draco didn’t know why but that knowledge did make him feel a little better. He glared at the giggling students surrounding them and his eyes fell on the big brown eyes of Ginny Weasley. She was not giggling and whispering like the rest of the first year girls but watching Harry with big, round eyes whilst biting her bottom lip. Draco felt his fists clench involuntarily and his arms tightened across his chest, her, he knew it was her, it had to be, what other idiot would compare Harry’s adorably crazy hair to a blackboard, she was fast becoming the bane of his existence and Draco really needed to do something about it, it really was not fair that he couldn’t publicly declare Harry as his own, but, there were other ways.

The dwarf finished his song and climbed off Harry whose stuff was still spread all over the floor. Without thinking Draco bent to help him pick something up. Draco looked at what he was holding in his hand it was a diary of some sort, he didn’t know Harry kept a diary, he was a little offended he didn’t know about it and wondered if he featured in it anywhere.

Harry noticed that Draco had picked up Riddle’s diary and his heart sank. He had not had chance to tell his boyfriend about this particular find, and, if he was completely honest he wanted to keep it to himself just a little longer, he had been planning to show him that night and now Draco knew he had hidden something from him. Harry realised suddenly that he was still being watched and thought what he must look like kneeling on the floor silently watching Draco Malfoy examining one of his possessions;

‘Give that back.’ Harry said quietly.

Draco was just about to hand the diary back over dismissing it as rubbish when he noticed something that made his heart drop in to his stomach. Ginny Weasley was staring at the diary he held in his hand, her gaze occasionally flicking back to Harry and she looked absolutely terrified. Draco felt sick, he didn’t know what to think, in his hand he held a diary that he knew nothing about, a secret Harry had kept from him, something that possibly contained Harry’s inner most thoughts and feelings and the She Weasel was looking at it with absolute fear in her eyes. She looked as though she was terrified that a massive secret was about to be revealed, a secret to do with the diary, Harry’s diary. Draco looked at the diary in his hand, it felt heavy all of a sudden like it had suddenly turned to lead. He glanced at Ginny who, in turn was looking at Harry, he bristled internally and turned to look at his boyfriend who was now standing staring expectantly at him, hand out waiting for the diary. Draco caught Harry’s eye and noticed the slight fear in those too. Draco felt sick, it was obvious Harry was hiding something, something that the She Weasel knew all about, he had trusted Harry, more than anyone ever and it looked as though the She Weasel had managed to steal him. He desperately wanted to read the diary, to read what these two so obviously wanted to hide from him. He needed to see it with his own eyes, see the betrayal in black and white.

‘Wonder what Potter’s written in this?’ he said quietly as he laid his hand on the cover as though to open it. He caught Harry’s eyes and watched them widen in disbelief that Draco would do that. Draco really didn’t want to but he felt so utterly betrayed and devastated that his rules when it came to Harry had flown out of the window. He could not seem to think straight and it was almost a relief when Percy Weasley spoke to him ordering him to hand the diary back. Draco didn’t want to, he refused, he wanted to read the diary so badly.

Draco was contemplating his next move when suddenly a panicked Harry shouted , ‘Expelliarmus!’ and the diary flew from his hands. That sealed the deal Harry was so desperate to hide his affair with the she Weasel he would break school rules and perform magic in the corridors. Draco was furious he stared at Harry hoping the pain he was feeling did not show in his eyes, as Ginny walked past him he snarled at her; ‘ I don’t think Potter like your valentine very much.’ She covered her face with her hands and ran away from him, ‘funny’ Draco thought, ‘that is exactly what I feel like doing.’ Without looking back at Harry he whirled around and strode off as fast as he could without breaking in to a run. He felt the burning sting of unshed tears in his eyes long before he was able to throw himself on to his bed and draw his curtains tightly.

......

Harry got to the Trophy Room early that night, He was looking forward to seeing Draco and giving him the gift he had picked out. Harry knew he had an awful lot of explaining to do about the diary but he knew Draco would understand especially because of what he had just found out. He settled in to his corner and began to read through a book he had brought with him.

 It was two o’clock in the morning before he realised that Draco wasn’t coming.

 


	15. Sorting it out.

Harry walked back to his common room in a daze. He had never been stood up by Draco before and he didn’t know what to do.  He felt a hot tear escape and roll down his cheek as he climbed through the portrait hole, he had obviously done something wrong but he couldn’t for the life of him figure out what. He rubbed furiously at his cheek and ran up the stairs to his room, he threw himself on his bed not caring whether or not he disturbed anybody, and he grabbed the parchment from under his pillow. Nothing, not one word, what the hell had he done?

......

Harry had not slept a wink worrying, he had tossed and turned throughout the night running through the previous day in his mind. He was devastated, at that present moment Draco was pretty much his whole world along with his friends. His mind had raced through scenario after scenario each getting worse and increasingly far-fetched as time went on. Was Draco hurt or had he simply had enough? Harry felt as though his heart was breaking, he felt psychically sick which was not helped by the constant dull throb of a head ache from all the crying. Just before breakfast he pulled the parchment from beneath his pillow,

**Drake? He wrote. Are you there? Have I done something?**

There was no reply, Harry swallowed hard and reasoned Draco may have already left for The Great Hal and not taken the parchment with him, there was no way that he was going to think the worst he hurriedly dressed stuffing the parchment in his pocket as he went.

On entering the Great Hall, Harry’s glance immediately flew to the Slytherin table in search of his elusive boyfriend. He caught the top of the bright blonde head and sighed in relief, at least he knew Draco was ok, but that relief left a deeper hurt and confusion in its wake, Draco was fine, he could see him which could only mean that he was purposely ignoring Harry, Harry caught a lump in his throat and took his place at the Gryffindor table. Throughout breakfast Harry tried and failed on numerous occasions to catch Draco’s eye, steadfastly ignoring all attempts to engage him in conversation. He studied the blonde Slytherin, he could make out dark circles shadowing his pale face, Draco had not had much sleep that much was obvious, the Slytherin boy wasn’t eating just moving his spoon absently around his bowl, he too was ignoring all attempts at conversation whilst also resolutely not looking in Harry’s direction.

......

Ron Weasley considering himself Harry’s best friend and mulled this over as he watched his friend fall apart over his breakfast. He studied the smaller boys red rimmed eyes and the deep circles beneath them and knew that that slimy Slytherin had something to do with it. He knew Malfoy was to blame and he had told Hermione on more than ten occasions that Harry would end up hurt, he glared across the hall at the icey blond and stopped in his tracks, Malfoy was clearly as distressed as Harry if not more, he could see pain glazing the silver eyes  and vowed to get to the bottom of it, he just had no idea how to, his usual bullish manner would not work here but fortunately for him he was quite friendly with the brightest witch of their age.

......

Draco dragged himself from breakfast and back down to the dungeons for double potions with the Gryffindors, he would have skipped any other class just to avoid Harry but knew Snape would not stand for it so he strode meaningfully in to the classroom and took a desk right at the front dragging Pansy with him, doing this meant that he didn’t have to look at anyone else in the classroom but unfortunately meant he missed the scheming happening all around him.

 After Potions Draco was unceremoniously dragged in to an empty classroom by Blaise. The dark haired Slytherin had feigned interest in Draco’s wallowing therefore  lulling him in to a false sense of security, if he had had his wits about him Draco would have been slightly suspicious of his friend’s sudden concern, but as it was he was too busy feeling betrayed by Harry the he walked right in to the trap.

Suddenly Draco found himself facing three very pissed off Gryffindors.

‘Draco Malfoy what on earth are you playing at, what on earth is wrong with you ?’ berated Hermione the moment that the door was closed.

Draco snapped grey eyes on to his bushy haired friend, ‘Excuse me?’

‘Do not play dumb with me Draco you know exactly what I am talking about, I just don’t understand you, I know exactly how you feel about him...’

Ron, who had been successfully keeping a lid on it up until now, burst forward, words spilling out as he lunged forward ‘I always knew you’d end up hurting him, I knew it, how he could ever trust you, I feel like punching you in your smug face. I hope you realise that’ Ron took a step forward as Neville placed a gentle but warning hand on his arm.

‘Draco?’ Neville asked, almost shyly pushing a red-faced Ron back slightly, ‘Why are you ignoring Harry?’

Draco huffed and crossed his arms across his chest, ‘Whether or not I speak to Potter is none of your business, Longbottom and I think you should remember that.’

‘Potter, why are you calling him Potter?’ this was Blaise, stepping in front of Neville protectively and staring at his friend with wide brown eyes.

Draco shrugged and brought a hand to his face closely examining his finger nails. ‘Surely that is my business, Blaise, you know I am not one to gossip and talk about private affairs.’

Ron lunged forwards once again, only to be caught on each arm by Blaise and Neville.

‘I’ll kill him,’ he sneered, ‘Harry’s devastated.’

Draco’s head jerked back in surprise, his cool demeanour shattering in an instance ‘Harry’s devastated ? Surely he is just upset that he’s been caught out?’

Hermione looked at the blonde boy who recently had become one of her closest friends, with shock, as she looked in to his eyes and could see them burning deeply with hurt and anger, ‘What did he do Draco, what do you mean caught out?’

Draco snorted, ‘What did he do? As if you all don’t know, as if you all have not been laughing at me tucked up in your common room.’

Hermione’s eyes widened at this statement; ‘I can assure you that that is not the case, and I for one have no idea what you are talking about, and I would never laugh at someone I consider a friend behind their back and you know that.’

Hermione and Draco stood staring at each other, each trying to break the other whilst simultaneously wiling the other to back down, ‘Draco?’ Hermione said quietly, ‘talk to us, tell us what’s happened, why are you ignoring Harry, he’s heartbroken.’

‘Heartbroken?’ Draco spluttered, ‘How can he be heartbroken, he is not the one who has been cheated on?’ Draco snapped his mouth shut, realising what he had said, how much he had let show, his cheeks burned with embarrassment and his eyes dropped to the floor fighting back burning tears that threatened to fall.

‘He cheated on you?’ Blaise’s steady voice sounded across the room, lined with the slightest trace of anger ‘Are you sure?’

Draco nodded and slowly raised a hand to his face wiping a tear away as discretely as possible.

Hermione slowly approached Draco and cautiously lifted a hand to his arm placing it gingerly on his elbow in a show of comfort. Draco raised his head to look at her when a very familiar sound caught his attention, the sounds of a very soft, delicate piece of material falling to the floor. Draco whipped his head round and his eyes met wide emerald green ones that were shining with tears. Draco swallowed and spun on his heel ready to storm from the classroom when he felt Blaises’s strong grip on his forearm; ‘Wait Draco..’ Draco snapped back around, ‘Wait? What for? To hear his lies? I CAN’T BELIEVE THAT YOU SET ME UP, I THOUGHT WE WERE FRIENDS’ Draco’s voice broke as he tried to wrestle his arm form his friends grip.

‘Drake?’ a small, shakey and uncertain voice was heard from across the room. ‘Please.. I love you... you know that... I would never cheat.’ Harry swallowed hard and watched the conflicting emotions cross his boyfriends face fighting for dominance. He swallowed hard and began to speak, never taking his eyes from Draco’s face. ‘Please talk to me, I didn’t do it, I didn’t cheat, I would never. There is no one else I promise, will you talk to me? Just us? Please?’

Draco looked around at his friends each silently pleading with him and sighed, ‘Two minutes, although I don’t see what good it will do.’

......

Draco pulled himself up on to a nearby desk letting his legs swing freely below him and stared expectantly at Harry. ‘Well?’

Harry sighed and stepped closer to Draco who stiffened at the movement causing Harry to stop in his tracks ; ‘Why do you think I am cheating?’

‘Because you are?’

‘I’m not, look at me, please Drake.’

Draco looked up and met those eyes he loved so much and saw nothing but honesty staring back.

‘Why should I believe you?’

‘I don’t know, because I’m telling the truth, because I love you, you love me.’ Harry took another tentative step forward and this time Draco allowed it. ‘Drake, tell me what’s happened please, who has said something, what has made you think this?’

Draco sighed, ‘I have no idea what to think, I believed it so much I could see it right there in fornt of me, but now, now with you here I’m not so sure.’

‘Tell me’ Harry whispered taking another step.

Draco looked at his boyfriend and swallowed the lump forming in his throat, he began to talk, telling Harry his version of what had happened in the corridor and how he had interpreted it. Harry listened with wide eyes, when Draco finished Harry shook his head widely from side to side;

‘How have you got it so wrong? Do you really believe I think so little of you? Do you think so little of yourself?’

‘But you’re Harry Potter, you could have anyone that you chose, why would you settle for me.’

‘You are not settling, you are everything.’

Draco suddenly became very interested in his feet as hot tears sprang uncalled in to his eyes,

‘Tell me what really happened then?’ Draco looked up once more, ‘What were you hiding from me?’

‘Budge up it’s a long story.’

Draco pushed himself a little further along the desk as Harry sat at his side as Harry began to explain that he had no idea why Ginny was being such an idiot, but he did concede that she probably did set the dwarf on him, but when he started talking about the diary Draco slid off the desk and began pacing about the room as he registered what Harry was telling him. Once Harry had stopped talking he registered that Draco was deep and thought and watched him for a minute or two before calling him over.

Positioning himself between Harry’s knees, Draco placed a hand on each thigh and demanded that he be shown the diary as soon as possible he was not taking no for an answer. Harry looked up in to the silver eyes he knew better than his own and placed his own hands over Draco’s giving them a slight squeeze  as he did so.

‘Are we ok,’ He asked pretty sure he knew the answer already but needing to ask all the same.

Draco rolled his eyes, ‘Of course we are you idiot but I swear to all that is magical if that ginger bint ever so much as looks in your direction I will not be held .........

Draco was cut off as a set of warm lips covered his own. The familiar sensations flooded his system and he felt amazing and he did not want the feeling to end, wrapping his arms around Harry’s waist and stepping further in to the ‘v’ of his legs, slowly and not quite sure whether he was doing it right or not Draco tilted his head and parted his lips slightly hoping he wasn’t pushing Harry to far. Draco was relieved when, after a split second Harry mirrored his gesture and suddenly, he could feel the heat of Harry’s breath tingling on his lips and flooding his mouth, where previously there had only been his own two breaths mingled and shared the space, their mouths moved together,  as pent up worry, frustration and anger manifested itself in to a tentative but heated kiss each boy desperate to make their feelings known. Draco pushed further in to Harry feeling the need to be as close as possible as he felt the other boys hands rest on his shoulders, the finger tips digging in ever so slightly as Harry attempted to pull him closer still.

 The kiss seemed to go on forever, neither boy wanting it to end, until the need to breathe forced them apart. Red-faced and glossy eyed the two boys looked at each other in amazement, each one’s eyes lingering on the others swollen lips as they relived the last few minutes. Harry slowly lifted his fingers to touch his lips; ‘Wow,’ he breathed, then after a beat,‘we are so doing that again.’

The spell broken Draco smirked as he pulled the smaller boy in to a hug, ‘You bet.’

 


	16. Talking

** 36\. Talking **

‘What?... Are you kidding me?... That’s it?’ Ron raged at Harry as he recounted his easy make-up with Draco.

Hermione placed a warning hand on Ron’s elbow, ‘Ron leave it, it’s nothing to do with us.’

‘Nothing to do with us, we are Harry’s best friends.’ Ron spluttered as he  glared at Harry as though the statement was an accusation, that it was Harry’s fault they were best friends.

‘Hang on.’ Said Harry from his position on the common room floor. He was sat cross legged leaning against one of the over-stuffed couches, ‘I don’t understand the problem here. You should be happy we made up, happy I’m happy, you have just said that you are my best friend after all, surely you should be happy it’s sorted.’

Ron’s face softened slightly as he looked down at his small friend, he crouched down next to him, ‘Of course I am mate but, urgh,’ Ron ran his hands through his hair in frustration, sitting down in front of Harry, ‘ he accused you of having an affair and you let him get away with it, it’s annoying, he really hurt you, It makes me so angry that you have let him get away with it.’

Harry looked up in to his first friend’s blue eyes and smiled, ‘I know Ron but you don’t understand why he did it, his issue is with himself not me.’

Ron shot a pleading look at Hermione in hope that his almost-girlfriend would make Harry see sense. Hermione took a seat on the couch Harry was leaning against and placed a hand on his shoulder; ‘What Ron is getting at Harry, is that Draco hurt you, I know him, he is my friend.’ She ignored a snort from Ron,’ but he acted like a complete idiot and he has not even apologised for accusing you, for not trusting you. Don’t you understand why Ron is angry it’s like Draco has got away with hurting you, he gets you back, just like that.’

Harry looked from one friend to the other as though considering what to say next, then casting a glance around the common room he started to speak in a quiet voice barely above a whisper, ‘ I need you to understand, to  understand that i’m just so happy to have him back. He’s mine, not like I own him, but I can call him mine. I have never had someone that was mine before, I mean don’t get  me wrong I know have you guys and Nev, but this is different, you guys will all go off and be with other people, I mean Nev already has, and you guys, well it will probably be each other,’ he added with a knowing smile as Hermione blushed and Ron suddenly needed to clear his throat, ‘Anyway, I don’t want to lose him, not over something so silly’ Harry finished simply, looking at his friends expectantly.

Ron and Hermione exchanged a glance and Hermione slid on to the floor next to her friend. ‘Harry we understand, we do, but that’s hardly healthy, he needs to understand that he can’t just get away with hurting you, if he is going to stick around you need to be able to know he won’t keep hurting you because he can, you need to be able to talk to him, to trust him enough to tell him when you are hurt’ looking warily at Ron she continued, ‘we know that you are used to people hurting you and letting you down  but you need to know that it’s not ok, you can’t let Draco hurt you, whether he means to or not, and from what I know of him he’d be devastated to know how much he hurt you.’

‘Surely that’s reason not to tell him.’

‘Harry it’s all the reason to tell him, so he won’t do it again, are you seeing him tonight?’

‘Yes later.’ Harry affirmed with a nod.

‘Okay promise me you will talk to him, tell him how you feel, tell him how much he hurt you.’

Harry pushed himself from the floor with the palms of both hands and turned to look at his two friends sitting on the floor, ‘What if he leaves me?’ Hermione sprang from the floor and grabbed Harry by the shoulders, ‘Then he’s more of an idiot than I thought he was, right?’ This last bit was directed at Ron who was still sitting on the floor with his long legs pulled up to his chest, arms folded around them, ‘Right,’ he nodded, ‘and I’ll rip his head from his neck anyway so no worries.’ He finished, throwing a huge grin in Harry’s direction. Harry could not help but smile back at the red-headed boy feeling very grateful for his friends.

‘Okay,’ he conceded ‘I’ll tell him.’

......

Since the kiss Draco Malfoy had thought of little else. The feel of Harry pressed against him as he wrapped his arms possessively around the boy. He had been caught daydreaming on more than one occasion, inducing more than one teasing session from his fellow Slytherins and had practically skipped to the Trophy Room that night, well he would have done if Malfoy’s skipped, but he felt like skipping.

.......

Draco was sat waiting for Harry with his back pressed against the cold stone wall of the Trophy room, legs bent at the knees and elbows resting on them as he traced the arc of his pendant as it moved across the floor following Harry’s movements throughout the castle. He had been watching it’s movements for a few minutes when, suddenly the pendant stood on end and Draco jumped to his feet, grabbing the pendant as he did so eyes darting all around but not finding Harry, ‘Harry are you here?’

Slowly Harry removed the invisibility cloak from his body and looked carefully at the blond in front of him. He did not speak which was unusual. Draco looked at his boyfriend worriedly. ‘Harry’s what’s wrong?’ Draco asked as he took a step closer to his boyfriend. Harry held a hand up to stop him, ‘We need to talk.’

Draco’s heart felt as though it had stopped, he had thought they were ok, more than ok if the kiss had been anything to go by. ‘Harry what is it?’ he asked in a quiet tone.

‘Come sit down.’ Harry motioned Draco to their spot by the wall and sat down, sliding his back down the wall as he did so. Harry looked at his boyfriend and saw fear clouding his grey eyes, he reached out and took his hand , giving it a quick squeeze, ‘Don’t worry, I just need to tell you some things.’

‘Go on.’Draco swallowed.

‘You need to know that you hurt me.’

‘What... when?’

‘When you wouldn’t speak to me, I was heartbroken, I didn’t know why. I didn’t understand.’

‘Harry I ...’

‘No listen. As I said, I know why you didn’t and I know that it was more about you than me, but don’t you understand you accused me of cheating, of lying, are you going to think that again? Next time I talk to someone, what if someone spreads a rumour? Can you trust me? Can I trust you not to accuse me again?’

Draco stared at Harry, mouth slightly open, tears begin to fill his eyes.

‘Harry that’s not... that’s not how it was.. it’s not about not trusting you, you must understand..’

‘I know Draco, believe me, I know, but I can’t live that way...’ Draco gasped at Harry’s proclamation, ‘Are you ending this? I’m sorry. I don’t know what to say, please don’t do this.’ Fat tears began to roll down Draco’s face, screw the Malfoy rules he was not going to pretend that this was not affecting him, he was destroyed, he would not throw up his defences, Harry was the only thing good in his life, he would not give up without a fight ‘What can I do, please Harry.’ Draco was almost sobbing by now, Harry reached up and wiped a tear from his flushed cheek. ‘Drake...’ at Harry saying his name that way Draco looked up in to those green eyes he knew so well, ‘Harry, really, deep down I knew you would not do that to me, I just , I just don’t think I’m worth not cheating on, especially when you could have anyone.’ Harry lifted his hand and cradled the side of Draco’s head, Draco leaned in to the touch, ‘Drake thanks for admitting that, I know that was hard for you, I’m not breaking up with you..’ Draco’s head lifted and he leant forward and captured Harry’s lips in a sweet kiss. ‘Why not?’ Draco all but whispered.

Harry pressed his forehead against the taller boys and clasped a hand to the back of his neck, ‘because I don’t want to you git I just needed you to know how much you hurt me, how could we move on if you didn’t know?’

‘Harry,’ Draco swallowed, ‘I didn’t mean to.’

‘I know sssh, stop worrying.’

‘I’m a Malfoy why am I whining like a child?’ Draco admonished himself with a shake of his head.

Harry snorted in amusement, ‘Because you’re just Drake when you’re with me you git that’s why’

Draco smiled, ‘I never want to hurt you.’

‘Drake I know, you know now, we can move on, but I really can’t let you do this to me again.’ Harry turned and threw his leg over Draco so that he was straddling his thighs, ‘One more chance mister, don’t screw it up.’ He tilted his head and leaned towards his boyfriend, lips parted in anticipation, Draco tilted his head to mirror Harry, placing his hands on the brunette’s hips and pulling him more snugly against his front. Lips met and bodies were filled with a searing warmth, Harry’s hands clasped at Draco’s shoulders as though he never wanted to let go. Draco’s hands snaked around Harry’s waist pulling him in to a tight embrace flush against his chest. Eventually, and with much regret  the kiss broke and Draco rested his head on Harry’s shoulder, ‘I am so sorry Harry.’

Harry placed a hand on either side of Draco’s face and pushed his head back to meet his eyes, ‘will you shut up!’ punctuating his statement with a quick kiss on the lips.

Draco barked a laugh in Harry’s face, grinning widely he said; ‘Ok, ok, so tell me about this diary then.’

......

Harry had remained quite comfily in his position on Draco’s lap as he explained the story of the diary.

‘Can I see?’ asked Draco wiggling his legs to regain some of the feeling they had lost from being Harry’s seat for so long.

‘Yeah hang on.’ Harry jumped up and grabbed his bag whilst Draco shook his legs out immediately missing Harry’s warmth. A tattered looking book was thrown in to Draco’s lap as Harry dropped back down by his side. Draco picked it up with a look of disdain, ‘Is this it?’

‘Yep’ Harry replied as Draco began to leaf through it, ‘Erm, some diary, It’s empty, not one mark... wait .... it should have marks... it should be covered in your ridiculous red ink.’ Harry swatted him on the arm for that comment but nodded eagerly, ‘I know right.’

‘Wait let me..’ Draco began rummaging around in Harry’s bag, he pulled out a quill and thrust both at Harry, ‘Write something.’

Harry opened the book and began to write.

......

Draco seized Harry’s shoulders and bodily heaved him from the memory, he had been trying since he had witnessed his idiotic boyfriend stumbling quite literally head first in to the unknown, obviously the memory was over as he was able to remove Harry.

‘You idiot what were you thinking? Do you have any idea? That could have been anything? What was it? What did you see? Tell me Harry for Merlin’s sake.’

Harry stared open mouthed as Draco rambled on trying to process what he had seen. Draco stopped, realising that he had no audience, ‘Harry, Harry what is it?’

‘Drake, it was Hagrid. Hagrid opened The Chamber of Secrets fifty years ago.

......

**SMACK**

Draco did not see it coming, he was flat on his back in The Great Hall before he knew what, or who, had hit him. He raised a fist to his stinging cheek and tried to make sense of the chaos around him, he felt the strong arm of Crabbe hoist him to his feet as his counterpart, Goyle, was seeking retribution. He looked around at the mess of red and green as Slytherin and Gryffindor fought and argued around him. He caught the eye of his red-faced boyfriend who in turn glanced nervously to his left. Draco followed the gaze and met the smug grin of Ron Weasley. The Gryffindor was nursing his fist with pride. Draco and Ron locked eyes, there was a scuffle in the space between them as Goyle tried to get at Ron but Draco just watched, he knew what the punch had been for and knew that it was well deserved. He nodded in acknowledgement at the red-head, he received a nod in return, Ron felt that justice, for now, had been done.  Draco walked away taking his surprised housemates with him, feeling, as he walked away, a growing respect for his boyfriends best-friend.


	17. Chapter 17

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so so so sorry for the delay. This story has not been abandoned I'm just crazy busy !! Enjoy :D

‘What subjects are you taking next year’?

It was just past midnight and Harry was sat curled beneath Draco’s arm leaning  in to his side. They were leaning against, what they had come to see as ‘their’ wall in the Trophy Room.

It had been a long day and the second years had been told that this week they must decide which subjects that were going to take during their third year.

Draco shrugged, ‘I have no idea, you?’

‘I’d love to give up Potions.’ Harry said with a sigh, ‘I know I can’t though Ron told me we have to keep all our old subjects.’ Harry sighed and slumped further in to Draco’s side. He felt Draco’s arm tighten around him, ‘You’ll survive Harry, Snape doesn’t hate you as much as you seem to think he does.’

Harry sat up with a start, he turned his head to glare at the blond at is side ‘C’mon Drake you know full well that he does he can’t stand the sight of me.’ Harry huffed and crossed his arms across his chest as though in an act of defiance, Draco smirked and reached out with his left hand and pulled Harry back in to his arms by his collar, he wrapped his arm around the smaller boy pulling him back against his chest;  ‘Behave Potter, you are not a child.’ This caused Harry to huff and stick out his bottom lip, ‘actually Drake I think you’ll find I am,’ Draco laughed at the petulant display, after a second or two Harry relented and gave Draco a little dig with his elbow before continuing; ‘ seriously though I grew up as a muggle, I have no bloody idea what these subjects are, Divination, what the hell is that?’

‘Rubbish’ Draco replied, ‘Don’t go for that.’

Harry turned his head so his chin was resting on Draco’s chest, he looked up through his fringe at his boyfriend, ‘Kinda already have, I didn’t know what to pick so I just picked the same as Ron.’

Draco rolled his eyes, ‘Weasley, you picked the same as Weasley, and I had every hope for you.’ The tome was almost mocking but Harry could hear the laughter behind it and knew Draco was just playing with him.  Harry reached up and cuffed Draco lightly round the ear, ‘at least I have picked something, why haven’t you? I had assumed you always knew exactly what you wanted to do.’

Draco hummed and absent mindedly reached up a hand to run through Harry’s unruly mop of hair, ‘That is exactly why I’m not sure, I have always been told exactly what to do, my future is mapped out for me, and the funny thing is I have no idea what my future holds, It’s awful, I know that Father has decided my future he just doesn’t think that it is important that I get to know, it’s not important as long as I do the right thing at the right time according to Saint Lucious of Malfoy. ‘

Harry turned once more to look in to his boyfriends steely grey eyes, he reached up and placed a hand on the pale cheek, Draco’s gaze dropped to meet his, ‘Who cares at the minute though, we are just kids and are you not having fun now?’

Draco smirked and there was an evil glint in his eye as he pushed Harry off him he pounced on the smaller boy pushing him to the floor, he swung a long leg over Harry and straddled him, pinning his arms above his head, ‘Sure am,’ he said quietly as he leaned in to kiss his boyfriend for the first time that day.

......

Harry  had had a brilliant day, the sun was shining and he felt ridiculously happy with the way his life was at the moment. He had managed to put the issued that the school was facing and the diary to the back of his mind as he wandered back from Quidditch in the warm autumn sun. He was just walking back towards the castle when he felt his parchment vibrate, the pattern to mark a four way conversation repeated again and again, each time seemingly with more urgency as he hurriedly tried to remove the parchment from where it was hidden in the fold of his robe.   As he had not yet seen any of the conversation the parchment was filled from top to bottom in the hurried conversation of his friends and boyfriend, the first handwriting at the top of the page was Neville’s untidy scrawl;

_Harry are you there, you need to come to the dorm it’s urgent._

Followed by the looping curves of Draco,

_What is it Neville? You know he is at a game?_

_Draco are you with Blaise? Where are you both? I’m really worried and could do with you being here if possible?_

_What is it Neville, spit it out?_

_I’m here Nev what is it? Where are you? Are you ok? We can’t come to Gryffindor tower._

_I have the cloak Blaise so we can do as we please, where are you?_

_In the dorm I’m coming to the common room now._

_Ok, Neville care to fill us in?_

_Our dorm has been completely trashed, I have no idea who has done it but it’s Harry’s stuff, It’s every where , someone, I have no idea who, has been through all his things he needs to get her e quick._

_Nev we are on our way can you let us in somehow?_

_Er yeah there is loads of commotion I’ll say I need a breath of air, pretty sure no one will miss me._

_Nev now is not the time._

_I know sorry, Where the hell is Harry?_

At this point Harry had broken to a run and was so close to Gryffindor tower that he did not need to reply.

The portrait swung open and Harry threw himself in to the Gryffindor common room, every head in there turned to stare at him, he heard the whispers following him as he raced up the stairs toward the dormitory taking them two at a time, he swung around the door frame in to the dorm and stopped dead at the sight that greeted him, the dorm room was covered in almost everything that he owned, pages of his homework and text books littered the floor, even his clothes had been pulled from the trunk and were scattered haphazardly throughout the room. At that moment Harry had never been happier that Draco had borrowed the invisibility cloak, with that thought he glanced at Neville raising a questioning eyebrow, Neville caught on to the meaning of what was being asked and glanced quickly towards a seemingly empty corner of the room, Harry felt his shoulders relax knowing that Draco was here in the room with him.

As he and Neville pulled his blankets back on to the bed Ron, Dean and Seamus came in. Dean swore loudly.

‘Harry what happened?’

‘I have no idea, obviously someone was looking for something.’

Harry met Ron’s eye, ‘Is anything missing?’ the red-headed boy asked, Harry shrugged, ‘Let’s look, Dean, Seamus could you go and ask around , only a Gryffindor could have gotten in and done this.’ Dean and Seamus shared a looked and left the dorm with a nod to Harry. ‘Ron,’ whispered Harry, ‘ Shut and lock the door will you,’ Ron looked at his friend in askance but did what had been requested of him, no sooner than he had turned the key he heard a rustle of material, as he turned he was greeted by the two Slytherin’s that had been hidden, until then, from sight, ‘Bloody hell,’ Ron said, ‘a bit of warning next time yeah.’

‘Oh do we quiet Weasley there are more important things going on here, Harry is there anything missing.’

Harry looked up at his tall Italian friend and shrugged his shoulders, ‘Dunno, c’mon you lot give me a hand.’

The five boys worked in silence to restore the room to it’s former self, the silence punctuated occasionally with muttering from a certain blond haired Slytherin who was plotting the downfall of the person who had dared to do this to Harry’s things.

Suddenly Harry stood up straight from where he had been organising his trunk, ‘guys, it’s missing, Riddle’s diary is missing.’

......

Harry heard the voice again... he turned wide-eyed to Ron, ‘Can you not hear that?’ Ron shook his head, Hermione, however, clapped a hand to her forehead.

‘Harry – I think I’ve just understood something! I’ve got to go to the library!’

And she sprinted away up the stairs.

......

_Hermione’s been attacked._

_What?_

_Where?_

_Who attacked her?_

_I don’t know she has been petrified?_

_Seriously, Harry where are you?_

_Yeah seriously, I’m in the dorm with Ron he is not in a good way, just staring blankly at the wal._

_I’m coming up now Harry._

_Ok Nev, see you in a sec._

_Wish I could come too?_

_I know Blaise don’t worry can’t be helped, there is nothing we can do anyway._

_What happened Harry?_

_I don’t know Drake I was called from Quidditch and she was just lay there unmoving, it was completely awful?_

_Where had she been?_

_The library, (Nev’s just arrived) I heard the voices again and she seeed to realise something and darted off there before we could stop her._

_I’m glad he’s there._

_Yeah me too, he’s talking with Ron now, she had a mirror with her, what the hell is that about?_

_A mirror? That’s interesting._

_Really? You have an idea?_

_I might do, but I don’t want to say anything as yet in case I am wrong._

_Ok, let me know though. I think I need to go and talk to Hagrid,_

_You will do no such thing._

_I have to._

_D you think that they suspect him?_

_I don’t know but I don’t think  it’s him._

_So why go to see him?_

_If he did open the Chamber he will know how to do it again._

_And why, may I ask do you need to know that?_

_I need to stop this._

_You need to stay out of trouble. You can’t go out anyway we have to stay in our dorms._

_I have a way of getting out without being seen though don’t I Drake._

_Blaise I’m sorry about this,_

_The parchment vibrated and suddenly it was just Draco and Harry that were able to see the conversation;_

_Harry what on earth are you planning on doing?_

_I need to speak to Hagrid to find out what he knows, I need to help Drake, I need you to bring me my cloak please._

_Harry you cannot put yourself in more danger._

_Draco please try and understand, she is my friend, I need to try and stop this, or at the very least get some information to help._

There was a long pause , it went on for so long that Harry began to think Draco had stopped speaking to him.

_Fine, you go, but I am coming too._

_Draco..._

Draco’s curved writing appeared before Harry could even finish his sentence;

_I’m coming too, no arguing, I will meet you  at the portrait hole in five minutes._

Harry sighed as he folded up his parchment, he quickly explained to Neville and Ron what he was planning to do, he assured Neville he could contact him if he needed to leaving Ron blinking confusedly between the two and then left the room to wait for Draco.


	18. Chapter 18

Harry had successfully managed to keep Draco hidden beneath the cloak for the whole time he had been with Hagrid with the blond opting to stand in the corner and listen to what the half-giant had to say, just happy he could see Harry. But suddenly there had been a knock on the door and Harry now found himself pressed closely to the taller boy’s chest as the cabin filled with visitors, some more welcome than others.

......

Harry had felt Draco freeze at his side as the tall, imposing figure of Lucius entered Hagrid’s cabin. He carefully reached back to give Draco’s hand a supportive squeeze and was relieved to feel a squeeze in return. He could not imagine how Draco felt being this close to his abusive father, he leaned back against Draco and felt the Slytherin place his forehead to the nape of Harry’s neck. It was almost as though Draco did not want to see his father, but he could hear him and is fist clenched in Harry’s as he realised what Lucius was there for. The fist did not unclench until Dumbledore has left his parting message and vanished in to thin air.

......

‘If anyone wanted ter find out some stuff, all they’d have ter do would be ter follow the spiders. That’d lead ‘em right! That’s all I’m sayin’.’

........

‘You are joking right? He actually wants us to follow spiders, Not happening, no way.’

Harry sat perched on one end of Ron’s bed filling him in on what had happened at Hagrid’s, Ron had sat leaning against the headboard, listening open mouthed as though in a daze, it was only the mention of Hagrid’s cryptic message and his worst fear that had snapped him out of his daze.

‘Ron listen...’

‘Nope no way, you know how I feel.’ Ron shuddered visibly and Harry felt the pangs of sympathy for his friend.

‘Well I will just have to go alone.’ Harry stated with a determined look on his face folding his arms stubbornly across his chest.

Ron’s eyes bugged out of his head as he stared at his best friend in a cross between awe and horror, typical of Harry, no thought for his own safety, then, without warning, he snorted and shook his head.

‘What?’ demanded Harry, Ron just looked at him with a smirk, ‘What?’ Harry once again demanded with a little more volume, turning to face Ron fully.

Ron shook his head, ‘Mate, seriously, as much as I hate to admit it there is no way on earth that Malfoy would let you do that.’

Harry gaped openly at his friend, he felt betrayed ‘He is not my boss!’ he huffed indignantly  and poked his bottom lip out slightly.

Ron shifted slightly so that he was now sitting side by side with Harry and placed a placating hand on his friend’s shoulder, ‘I know mate, but as I said I hate to admit it and it’s obvious he cares about you and there is no way he would let you follow them on your own, Merlin knows where you will end up Harry and you do have a nack of getting yourself in trouble.’

Harry stared at the floor but he knew Ron was right, he knew Draco would follow him if he went, and he wasn’t sure if he wanted to drag Draco in to more trouble than he already had, ‘But it’s for Hermione,’he tried one more time.

Ron sighed and dropped his hand back to his lap, they had tried on more than one occasion to visit Hermione but they had not been allowed and it was hitting them both hard, ‘I know mate, I really do, I hate this as much as you do,but I’m sure the slimey git will think of something, something that doesn’t involve you trying to get yourself killed.’

Harry started and stared at his red-headed friend, he wasn’t sure whether to wack Ron for insulting Draco or be surprised at the back-handed compliment. Luckily, at that moment Harry was saved from making a decision as Neville blundered through the dormitory door.

Now Ron was many things but stupid was not one of them, in fact he was quite intelligent and very observant, he noticed the things that were going on around him, he just often chose not to comment and watch from the sidelines instead, and this was how he knew that Neville had a way of contacting Malfoy even if he wasn’t meant to.

‘Nev can you get in touch with Malfoy please? I really need to talk to him’

Neville stared at Ron unblinkingly for what felt like an eternity, then slowly turned his head to look at Harry to find an expression mimicking his own, he turned back to Ron, ‘What?’ he asked attempting to feign ignorance, it did not work;

‘Guys, how soft do you think I am? I know that one, or even both of you has a way of getting in touch with Malfoy and I want a word so come on.’

Neville looked at Harry who ,although still completely shocked, managed to shrug his shoulders, having no idea what it was Ron wanted and not being entirely sure how well it would go down with his boyfriend.

Neville dug around in the pocket of his robe and joined his friends on Ron’s bed, he crossed his legs and smoothed the parchment on his knee as Ron turned and watched him with increasing interest.

 _Draco,_ Neville wrote.

_Yes? Is Harry ok?_

Ron couldn’t help but role his eyes at that earning himself an elbow in the ribs from Harry. Neville wasn’t sure what to say, he glanced up at Ron who just nodded at him to continue.

_Harry is fine, he’s with me, so’s Ron, that’s why I’m writing really._

_What has he done now?_

Ron pursed his lips but said nothing, fully aware that he deserved that.

_Nothing, he well, he wants to talk to you._

_Me? Weasley wants to talk to me?_

_Well this ought to be interesting, hand him over._

Neville gingerly handed the parchment and quill to Ron, Ron glanced at Harry and then wrote quickly before the smaller boy could stop him;

_Harry has decided he is going to follow the spiders, alone._

_He’s what????_

Harry reached up to grab the parchment from Ron, the two scuffled for a minute with Ron claiming victory, Harry ran across to his bedside table and dragged his own version of the parchment out so he could join in the conversation and defend himself;

 _It needs to be done_ , he wrote

 _It does not_ , this was Ron, who in turn was glaring at him from across the room.

_I am going to rue the day I said this but I agree with Weasley._

Harry watched as Ron’s eyebrows almost disappeared in to his hair line.

_What about Hermione?_

_We all want to help Hermione but Harry, why on earth would you listen to a half-giant who has no concept of personal safety._

_He would not hurt me._

_Not intentionally mate, but I agree with blondy, he’s not exactly high on the safety stakes is he._

_Exactly! He has no idea about safety for himself and others around him, you saw in the diary that he has no concept of safety, that’s why the oaf was expelled._

_Drake he’s not an oaf, he cares about me, and what other option do we have?_

_I don’t know Harry, do you think it had anything to do with Hagrid at all?_

_No, I don’t, I think you’re both right, I think he’s daft when it comes to safety, but he’s harmless._

_I’m inclined to agree,_

_Yep me too but where does that leave us?_

_We need to get together, to talk._

_How Malfoy? We can’t leave the dorms._

_We have to try?  Harry?_

_I agree, Room of Requirement tonight at midnight?_

_It will be dangerous, we have no idea what’s out there do we?_

_Is it worth it?_

_We need to get together, we need to discuss and see what we can come up with before we decide to follow spiders._

_Let’s do it._

_Be careful._

The three Gryffindor’s  stared wide eyed at each other,

‘We’re ok’ Harry whispered, ‘We have the cloak, we’ll just about manage under it, but what about Blaise and Draco?’

......

‘We have to hide your hair Draco.’

Draco huffed as Pansy pulled the deep hood down over his head to cover his bright and distinctive head of hair.

‘Oh and boys, no arguments, I’m coming too, right lets go.’

......

The three Slytherin’s left their dormitory  a good half an hour before they were due to meet the Gryffindor’s. They needed to be able to take their time.

Pansy had insisted that they go bare foot and Draco felt the chilling coldness of the castle’s stone floors with every step, but she was right of course, the three children hardly made a sound as they crept through the shadows. Each of the Slytherin’s had a dark hood pulled down over their faces and were almost invisible to the naked eye. The moonlight left bars across the floors that stretched like long fingers up the walls of each of the long corridors; these were avoided at all costs.

They made it to the staircase without incident and began the arduous climb, here they were more exposed as there were no walls and shadows to cling to. They crept slowly and kept low, hoping luck was on their side.

They had just reached the seventh floor landing when Draco felt his collar gripped from behind and he was dragged in to an alcove shrouded partially by a suit of armour. Before he could even blink Pansy clamped a hand across his mouth and he looked into her wide panicked eyes. He looked over her shoulder at Blaise who seemed to be shaking slightly. He knew someone must have heard something, he strained his ears to hear past the heavy, fast paced breathing that seemed to echo loudly around the alcove. For a moment he couldn’t hear a thing and then, there it was, it was a sound like nothing Draco had never heard before, it almost sounded like something heavy was being dragged slowly across the floor outside the alcove but there were no footsteps, no matter how hard he tried he couldn’t place the sound, he just knew that the noise had made his whole body go cold, he felt as though he could feel the chills right down to his bone. 

Suddenly as soon as it had appeared the noise was gone again, ‘come on lets go,’ whispered Blaise. The three Slytherin’s broke in to a run, racing down the corridor until they stood before the vast expanse of stone wall.

‘Why are we stopping?’ hissed Pansy.

Draco ignored her and began pacing back and too in front of the blank wall,

‘Have you finally lost your mind?’ she hissed once more, grabbing Draco by the shoulder, she opened her mouth as if to speak again but words failed her as a door seemed to grow from the floor in front of her.

Draco couldn’t resist a smirk as he pushed open the large oak door.

......


	19. Making Plans

Harry spun around as the door creaked open, the three Gryffindor’s had only just arrived and had barely shrugged off the cloak when the Slytherin’s entered the room.

‘Dray, thank God I was so worried,’ Harry threw himself  in to his boyfriend’s arms, he wrapped his arms around the thin shoulders and hugged Draco close to him as though he was finding comfort from feeling the blond’s heart beating against his chest. Draco returned the hug for a moment relishing in the heat resonating from Harry’s body before lightly pushing Harry away. ‘Me too,’ he whispered placing a light kiss to the other boys lips,’ but I’m glad we are all here safe, and we have so much to talk about, so much to figure out, we need to help Hermione.’ Harry nodded and opened his mouth as if to say something but was interrupted by a sound from behind them;

‘Where the hell are we?’ Pansy was stood, just beyond the threshold of the room and her question had been barely louder than a whisper.

In the rush of relief from seeing Harry was ok Draco had forgotten that his friend had never been to this room before. He turned to look at Pansy who was currently staring around in wonder, she took in the almost floor to ceiling windows that flooded the room with a bright sunlight that could not possibly be real, then looked in awe at the huge open fire place that already contained a blazing fire, her eyes grew wide as she noticed the luxurious sofas that stretched almost the width of the room and her mouth dropped open and the array of food and drink spread before them. Draco, watching her,  hid a smirk at the knowledge of how mortified she would be if Pansy could see the dopey look on her face at this moment. He walked over to her and placed an arm around her shoulder, he led her  to centre of the room as though he was the Master of the House showing around a new guest, he drew his arm in a large arc;

‘This, my dear Miss Parkinson, is the Room of Requirement.’

Pansy stopped looking around, closing her mouth with a snap and stared at her friend, ‘The what? What does that mean? How did you know it was here?’

‘Guys I don’t mean to be rude,’ Neville interrupted quietly, heat rising a little in his cheeks as though he was embarrassed at his own outburst  ‘but can we fill her in later, we kind of have some important business to discuss.’ Blaise stood at his side with a hand on the small of his back in a silent show of support and nodded his agreement.

Pansy had the grace to look at least slightly abashed and nodded her head sharply in their direction. ‘Sorry Longbottom it’s just shocking you know, I had no idea it was here.’

‘It’s ok Parkinson,’ Neville said with a small smile,’  I was the same when I first discovered it, come and sit down, let’s talk and figure out what we are going to do.’

The four students who thought of this room as their own walked over to the usual plush sofas they frequented, Pansy followed, chosing a place next to Neville and Blaise, which left Ron, through no choice of his own, sitting with Harry and Draco on the opposite sofa.

Ron leaned forward and looked around Harry at the blond sitting on his other side, ‘Malfoy you said you had a hunch?’

Draco leaned back and steepled his fingers under his chin, immediately stopping when he realised where he had learned that particular habit, and hummed quietly to himself for a moment. ‘Hmm, well it was what you said about the mirror. It got me thinking about something I read.’

‘What was that?’ asked Blaise leaning forward to rest his elbows on his knees, hands clasped together in front of him.

Draco dug around in his trouser pocket for a moment before pulling out what looked like a page torn from a very old library book, ‘Here listen to this,’ he said before proceeding to read out what it said about a creature called a Basilisk.

......

By the time Draco finished Ron’s mouth was hanging open, ‘That has to be what it is, it explains so much, from Hagrid’s roosters to Hermione carrying a mirror but if that’s true how has it been getting from place to place? Someone would notice a great bloody snake roaming the halls I’m sure.’

Silence fell for a moment while the group thought for a second, digesting what Ron had said, suddenly Pansy sat forward excitedly, ‘Pipes, it has to be the pipes, It’s getting around in the walls.’ Ron looked wide-eyed at the Slytherin girl as though surprised at her intelligence, Pansy couldn’t help but smirk at him.

Draco leapt to his feet, ‘Pansy you genius! That has to be it. Harry it has to be what you were hearing in the walls!’ Draco spun excitedly to Harry, Harry stood up and took a step towards Draco, eyes wide, ‘It has to be, a giant snake, that’s why only I could hear it. I thought I was going mental. This explains so much!’

‘Draco?’ Pansy’s voice was barely a whisper, breaking the excited tension within the room ‘that noise, on the way here, do you think? It couldn’t have been, could it?’

Blaise sat back with a thump,  ‘Shit!’

‘What?’ Neville asked worriedly clasping his boyfriends arm, ‘Blaise what is it?’

 Blaise swallowed the lump that had formed in his throat and turned scared eyes to his boyfriend; ‘On the way here we heard a noise, it was as though something heavy was being dragged along the corridors, we hid, we had no idea what it was, I didn’t even try and guess,  but imagine, imagine if it was that great big murderous snake and it had looked at us, shit, we were so close’ Blaise dropped his head in his hands and Neville turned big, scared, brown eyes to Harry, ‘Harry?’

Harry looked askance at his boyfriend; the colour drained from Draco’s face, ‘It was, it had to be. We were so close to losing our lives. Fuck.’

Draco felt his was slowly over to the couch and lowered himself down, Harry followed and wrapped his arms around the Slytherin.  Pulling the shocked boy close to his chest, as over on the other sofa Neville did the same.

......

The Slytherin’s were in shock, they all realised how close they had been to danger, to almost certain death; Ron looked around noticing that the Slytherin boys were being comforted by their attentive and reassuring boyfriends, but Pansy was sat trembling and alone at the end of the sofa, her face was ghostly white and her eyes were slowly filling with tears. Ron watched for a moment unsure of what to do with himself and then, when she brought her long, thin arms up to around herself he made up his mind; in two quick steps he had crossed the gap between them and gathered the shaking girl in his arms. Pansy stiffened the moment he touched her but Ron did not relent, he squeezed harder pulling her in close to his chest, eventually she relaxed, collapsing on to his chest she began to cry, whimpering sobs that racked her whole body, ‘Sssh it’s ok,’ Ron whispered reassuringly, ‘You’re here, you’re alive, I’ve got you’ unconsciously he began stroking the dark hair at his chest, Houses and old grievances didn’t seem to matter when lives were at stake.

......

The next morning found all six of the students curled together on the floor of the Room of Requirement, sleep hadn’t come easily, they had talked until the early hours of the morning making, and then scrapping plans over and over again until sleep had won the battle that each had been fighting with it. One of the things that had been decided was that Moaning Myrtle had to be the Basilisks victim when the Chamber had last opened and someone needed to talk to her. The decision over who it was to be had not been made yet.

Harry woke first and for a moment forgot why they were all there, he felt content and happy as he felt Draco’s strong arm wrapped around him, his back pressed snugly against the boys firm chest. He glanced to his left and saw the, now familiar sight of Blaise curled protectively around his smaller boyfriend,  but Harry got a shock when he turned to his right and saw his best friend tightly pressed against Pansy’s back with one long arm wrapped around her middle, pulling her in close to him, something about the picture they painted niggled at Harry but before he could think anymore about it his friends began to wake around him.

......

The House Elves had delivered breakfast at some point before they woke and now they sat in relative silence, even Ron only picking at the food in front of him. A decision to speak to McGonagall had been made but they knew they couldn’t be seen together so the Slytherin’s were going to take the cloak and head down to speak to Myrtle and the Gryffindor’s would go to the staff room to find their head of house and tell her what they knew.

......

_‘Her Skeleton will lie in the Chamber forever.’_

Professor Flitwick burst into tears.

‘Who is it?’ said Madam Hooch , who had sunk, weak-kneed into a chair. ‘Which student?’

‘Ginny Weasley,’ said Professor McGonagall.

Harry felt Ron slide silently down onto the wardrobe floor beside him.

......

Draco was in the middle of a deep conversation with Moaning Myrtle, buttering her up enough to convince her to share the details of her death, she was just pointing out the exact sink where it happened when Harry burst in to the bathroom followed by Ron and Neville, who, inexplicably, were dragging Professor Lockheart between them.

‘Ginny, Dray, it’s got Ginny.’ Harry burst out turning panicked eyes to his boyfriend.

Ron’s face was ashen as the colour dropped from his cheeks at the reminder.

Draco looked around the room and was faced with several pairs of eyes looking at him questioningly, apparently he was in charge; ‘Right ok.’ He said, taking a deep breath; ‘let’s go get her back.’

.......


	20. The Chamber

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok so I have a favour to ask. Who remembers Harry’s Christmas gift to Draco; a snow-white lion cub? Well he’s going to feature quite a bit in POA and perhaps from then on and he needs a name, so I have decided to ask my readers for ideas? What do you think I should name him?

Ron stared, wide eyed at Draco, ‘You, you’d help get my sister back?’

Draco stood, straight backed and looked straight at Ron, ‘Why wouldn’t I ?’

Ron shook his head in disbelief, ‘I just, I thought you hated her?’

Draco sighed, ‘Ok, so I have not made a secret of my dislike for you or your sister, but what kind of person do you think I am?’ at the look on Ron’s face Draco raise a hand, ‘Don’t answer that, but don’t think for one second I would leave anyone to that fate,’ Draco was aware that he was lying, if he was in this position just over a year ago there was no way he would be doing this, he was self aware enough to realise that Harry had changed him. He cared for Harry and wanted him to be happy, by proxy he cared for what and who Harry cared for, he knew full well that Harry would be distraught if anything happened to the Weaslette and if he could help prevent that, well so be it, the realisation that Harry would go down there anyway, with or without him, helped strengthen his resolve. Draco looked Ron square in the eye and tilted his chin up slightly, he was proud of who Harry was helping him become, he was proud of what he would do for Harry.

Ron met his stare with steely determination and a slight incline of his head, ‘Right, what do we do?’

Pansy walked forward and placed a comforting hand on Ron’s elbow, ‘She’ll be ok you know,’ Ron looked down at the small Slytherin and gave a weak smile, ‘I have to believe that,’ he looked back up at Draco, did you speak to Myrtle? How do we find her?’

Before Draco could answer Blaise stepped forwards and pointed behind Ron’s head where Neville was holding  Professor Lockheart at wand point, ‘What is he doing here?’

All the students turned as one to look at their blond professor; he looked slightly uncomfortable, Harry answered the question, ‘He’s the Defence Against the Dark Arts professor who knows what is down ther, we might need him,’ at this, Draco scoffed and muttered under his breath’ As if.’  The words echoed around the otherwise silent bathroom;

‘Excuse me young man but I am extremely famous for my work you know. I once fought off a ....’

Draco was saved from replying by Neville’s interruption , ‘What did you find out from Myrtle Draco?’

All eyes turned to the ghost who was bobbing around gleefully behind their group, she was obviously pleased with all the attention she was getting, her face was split in to a wide grin and her eyes glinted mischeviously behind her round spectacles;  she swooped across the room and down in front of Neville, she peered at him closely through her glasses causing him to step back, ‘ I was showing them where I saw the eyes?’

‘Eyes?’ asked Harry, bringing her attention back to him, ‘What eyes?’

‘I remember seeing a great big pair of yellow eyes, ‘ she said dreamily to Harry, closing in on him with a look reminiscent of a starving man at his first meal in weeks.

Draco stepped forward determined to stop her looking at Harry that way, ghost or no ghost Harry was HIS boyfriend; ‘ And where exactly was that?’

Myrtle somehow managed to kept her eyes on Harry and pointed vaguely in the direction of the sink in front of her toilet, ‘Somewhere there.’

Harry and Draco rushed over, the others followed with interest, Lockheart held back as much as he could with a look of utter terror on his face, it looked just like an ordinary sink, Draco and Harry looked it over, examining every inch, their friends watching eagerly over their shoulders, and then Harry saw it: a tiny snake etched on the side of the tap, he reached out to turn it, it just spun beneath his hand  ‘That tap has never worked’ said Myrtle brightly from right behind Harry;s right shoulder.

Ron leaned forward so his head was between Harry and Draco’s, he examined the sink carefully, he raised his eyebrows as a sudden thought struck him; ‘Try parseltounge Harry.’ Harry looked at him incredulously, ‘It’s a snake, give it a go mate,’ Harry turned and looked from his best friend to his boyfriend, Draco shrugged, ‘It’s worth a go.’

Draco stood and watched Harry’s initial failed attempt, the words ‘open up,’ slicing the air in clear English,  he took a step closer as Harry tried once more, urging the smaller boy on silently. Suddenly, like the day in duelling club, the room was full of the sibilant sounds of Parseltounge, Draco fought the need to close his eyes as he let the sounds wash over him, they felt like warm caresses wrapping around him gently almost lovingly,but, before he could lose himself, the sounds stopped, before his eyes the tap glowed with a brilliant bright light and began to spin, Draco watched as the sink groaned and then  began to move, he followed its movement as it disappeared out of sight leaving a huge exposed pipe in its wake. He knew it was coming before he heard the words, ‘I’m going down there.’ Draco closed his eyes in defeat, he knew there was no point fighting Harry over this, there was too much at stake, before he could utter a word he heard the determined words of Ron, ‘Me too.’ He hadn’t expected any less, it was Weasley’s sister after all. He turned around to look at his friends, each set of eyes showed fear but determination, Blaise gave a sharp nod, Pansy swallowed hard but copied the motion, Neville, still holding Lockheart looked at Blaise for reassurance, ‘You can stay Nev, no one will judge.’ Neville felt every pair of eyes turn to him, he closed his eyes for a moment, when he opened them again they were full of determination, ‘I’m coming.’ He said with an affirmative nod.

‘Well, you hardly seem to need me,’ said Lockheart, with a shadow of his old smile. ‘I’ll just –‘ before he could finish his sentence there were six wands trained on him, ‘I think,’ said Draco, ‘That you can go first.’

......

They landed with a thud on the damp floor of a dark, stone tunnel.

‘We must be miles under the school,’ whispered Pansy, Draco took in their surroundings, ‘Under the lake I’d guess’.

Pansy wrinkled her nose at the damp slimy walls around them, ‘Hmm I’d have to agree,’ she said, wiping her hands gracefully on her top.

The group stared in to the darkness ahead, almost as one they cast a whispered Lumos, the damp tunnel seemed to stretch for miles, Harry swallowed and stepped forward, the murky water on the tunnel floor splashing beneath his feet, ‘Remember,’ he said, ‘ Any sound, any sign of movement, close your eyes straight away...’

Draco reached out and clasped Harry’s free hand, noticing how clammy it felt; the group walked on in silence.

......

..... The creature that had shed it must have been twenty feet long at least.

‘Blimey,’ muttered Ron.

Behind them there was sudden movement as Gilderoy Lockheart dropped to his knees, as Neville leaned over to check on him the Professor jumped up suddenly and whipped Neville’s wand from his hand, he whirled around, grabbed Neville by the arm and dragged him in front of him, he pressed the wand firmly against Neville’s temple; the small boy whimpered.

‘The adventure ends here I’m afraid...’

‘EXPELLIARMUS!’

Harry had bellowed the disarming spell he had heard Snape use on Lockheart earlier in the year. Neville’s wand came flying through the air and landed in Harry’s outstretched hand.

Draco smirked at the shocked professor, ‘I knew you would be more trouble than you’re worth Incarcerous.’ The students stared as thick ropes flew from the end of Draco’s wand and wrapped themselves tightly around their Professor, Harry looked in askance at his boyfriend, Draco just shook his head, ‘I can promise you Harry you really do not want to know,’ Harry’s eyes narrowed in comprehension, the fire of hatred for a certain long haired wizard burned brighter than ever. He vowed he would get to that man, no matter how long it took.

Harry was snapped out of his thoughts by Neville, ‘We shouldn’t just leave him here though, what if The Basilisk comes ?’ Draco lifted one should in an elegant half shrug and turned back to Lockheart, ‘You are capable of shutting your eyes yes?’ Gilderoy nodded once, seemingly rendered mute by the mere thought of the Basilisk. ‘Good, that settles it, let’s go.’

The students turned to walk away, when suddenly there was a wild shout from behind them, ‘OBLIVIATE,’ Lockheart and managed to wrestle one hand free and lunged for the nearest wand, Ron’s spellotaped one.

The wand exploded with the force of a small bomb, great chunks of the ceiling were falling in, the students quickly ran for cover , as suddenly as it started it was over, but now a great stone wall was dividing the chamber, Draco looked wildly around; ‘Harry, ‘ he shouted, his heart dropped as he heard the reply from the other side of the wall, ‘Drake?’

‘Shit!’ cursed Draco,  kicking out at the wall in front of him, ‘Harry are you ok?’, ‘Yeah I’m fine, I think Pansy is a bit shook up though,’ at this Draco looked wildly around him taking in the anxious faces of everyone apart from his boyfriend and best friend, ‘what now?’ he asked no one in particular, ‘we can’t get through to you both.

 From his side Harry made a decision, they were wasting time, he looked across at Pansy she seemed to read his mind and nodded in determination, ‘Let’s go get her.’ She said holding out her hand, Harry took it and turned back towards the chamber, shouting over his shoulder, ‘We’re going for Ginny, if we’re not back in an hour...’ He didn’t know how to finish that. They took off towards the Chamber with Draco’s protesting screams echoing all around them.


	21. Chapter 21

Well this is odd. I'm writing on Notepad instead of word and I don't like it one bit.  
I'm won't write a massive apology, just know that I am sorry. I've had a completely mental few months and although  
I have wanted to sit and write I just didn't have time. There were genuine reasons keeping me away but I am still sorry,   
to top it off I upgraded my laptop to Windows 10 and now I don't have Word.  
Anyway it's been too long, I'll shut up we need to see how Draco is faring being stuck on the other side of the rock fall.

......

'Weasley move your fat head let me see?'  
Draco shoved Ron rudely to the side as he pushed his face flat against the dirty rock wall, squinting through the smallest gap in a vain attempt to see his boyfriend.  
'It's no use,' grunted Ron from the floor, glaring at the blond in front of him. 'You can't see a thing.'  
Draco whirled round and advanced on Ron with a menacing gleam in his eye, causing Ron to shuffle back slightly to create more room between him and the crazed Slythern,  
'What help is that?' snapped Draco 'Get over here and move some rocks you great Lummox, we need to get at them, we need to help.'  
Ron threw him an evil glare and pushed himself up from the floor, 'Is there a reason you think I need reminding of that you prat? My sister and best friend are in there, and Pansy too'.   
Draco noticed Ron's voice catch when he mentioned his friends name, he glanced quickly at the red-headed Gryffindor and notice the pink tinge cross his cheek bones fleetingly, he registered the thought but for now Harry was a top priority. 

............

'Blaise... Blaise are you ok? Blaise are you ok? Blaise wake up.'  
Neville's panicked voice filled the chamber they were trapped in, each time he spoke his voice rose. His boyfriend was lay, unmoving at his feet, his dark face had taken on a grey pallor, he was breathing but the breaths were coming in short and sharp bursts and as much as Neville tried he just couldn't wake him. The small Gryffindor was tremblingand crying in gasping breaths, he was stroking his small hand through Blaises smooth dark hair, repeating his name again and again. Ron and Draco turned in shock, due to their fighting they had not noticed Blaise had been hurt, guilt flooded through them as they took in the sight at their feet, the small, trembling Gryffindor cradling the head of his boyfriend in his lap.Ron crouched down and placed a hand on Neville's shoulder, the small boy looked up with frightened eyes as Draco crouched down by his friend, 'Blaise' he said in a firm tone, 'You'll be fine, I promise,' Draco placed his hand on the Italian boys shoulder and drew back with a start, his pale fingers were covered with warm, sticky blood, 'Shit, Blaise, shit, ' he shouted, hewas starting to panic now, he couldn't see where the blood was coming from but he could see enough to know it wasn't good. Wide grey eyes turned to Neville, 'Whathappened he hissed, 'What the fuck happened?' Neville shrunk back and Draco immediately regretted his harsh tone. 'Shit sorry Longbottom,'Neville replied in a whisper, 'It's ok, I know, you're worried, it was the rock fall he pushed me put of the way but got caught on the head, he was fine at first, standing talkingto me and then he just collapsed, just at my feet, I couldn't do anything,' Neville started shaking once more and Ron pulled him in to a one armed hug. 'Hey Nev, mind if Ihave a look at him?' Neville looked up at his ginger friend and nodded slightly. Ron pulled away from Neville and leaned across the tall body at his knees, he placed a hand at Blaise's shoulder and one at his hip and rolled him gently towards him. Blaise groaned as he was moved, 'Sorry buddy, 'Ron whispered down to him, I just need to see.'  
Draco grimaced as he noticed the gash on the back of his friend's head, the wound wasn't deep but was bleeding quite a bit, just behind his ear a gash of about three inches long was oozing red. Ron sucked his teeth and looked at Draco, 'Can you hold him a second?' Draco looked shocked but just nodded and moved around Ron,he replaced Ron's hands with his own and watched as Ron crouched behind Blaise's head. Without another word he pulled his wand from his sleeve and looked at Neville and then at Draco as if waiting for permission, each nodded silent approval with Draco shooting a warning glare. Ron took a deep breath and touched his wand almost to the wound, quietly he began to whisper, a string of words that Draco thought he recognised. Before their eyes Blaises's skin began to knit together. Beads of sweat gathered on Ron's forehead as the strain of the   
powerful magic took hold of him. Draco placed a supportive hand on his shoulder as he stared in awe at the red-headed Gryffindor. 

What felt like a few minutes passed and Ron was trembling with exertion, his power was being drained as it took on the strain, 'Come on Weasley, you can do this.' urged Draco. Ron wasn't so sure, he'd never had to do this for so long before now, but, just as he thought all hope was lost, there was a groan from Blaise and his eyes fluttered open, Neville leaped in to his arms, 'Oh my god Blaise, how are you feeling? Are you ok?'  
Blaise turned his head toward his worried boyfriend, 'I'm ok Nev, what happened?' Draco spoke before Neville could reply, 'I think that Weasley just saved your life.' He did not try to hide the shock in his voice as he relayed the last few moments to his best friend. Blaise turned, wide-eyed to Ron, 'Weasley, I owe you so much, you have my eternal gratitude and I now owe you a life debt.' Ron paled at the implication, 'No Zabini, seriously no, that's too much,' Blaise grabbed his hand, 'Firstly, you are now part of my inner circle, you call me Blaise, secondly, Ron, you are a pure-blood, you know that due to you saving my life I owe you a life debt, you must accept.'  
Ron nodded solemly still holding the other boys hand, 'How did you know what to do?' asked Draco, unable to hold back the question any longer. He had been dying to know but had held back from asking when Ron was concentrating on Blaise, Ron turned to the blond with a small smile, 'Being one of seven, six boys and one Ginny, you get in to some scrapes, there are only so many times that you can come home injured before you start learning to fix them.' Draco smiled and sent a small nod in Ron's direction, wondering what on earth it was that large families got up to that led children to teach themselves healing spells.

Suddenly, a strange noise started echoing throughout the chamber, 'Wheeeeeee, whooooo wheeeee.'  
All four of the boys turned to look in the direction of the noise and, as one, their mouths dropped open. Sitting against the wall, hunched down, knees pulled up to his chest, was Professor Lockheart, he was moving a rock around him with his arm extended, like a toy aeroplane, the noises were his sound effects. Neville scrambled to his feet and dashed to the Professors side, 'Professor?'   
The blond man looked up at him questioningly , with wide, almost innocent, blue eyes, 'That's a funny name, is that my name?' The others watched in shock as Neville dropped to his knees, his hands flew to his face and, within seconds the tunnel was filled with the sound of sobbing. Blaise struggled to stand and made his way over to Neville, 'Nev?' he said cautiously, 'Nev?' he crouched gently next to Neville and placed an arm around the smaller boy.  
'Nev it's ok, it's...' Neville wrenched himself from Blaise's grip causing Blaise to lose his balance and fall to his knees. Neville rounded on his boyfriend and hissed through gritted teeth, 'How is this ok? How is this ever ok'  
He stood up, eyes blazing with barely surpressed fury, 'His life is over, everything he is and was, gone in a second, how is that ok?' He advanced on his unmoving boyfriend, 'His memories Blaise, his family, his parents, does he have children? Will he remember their faces? Will he remember kissing them goodnight?' Neville's shoulders were heaving with exhaustion, Blaise remained unmoving at his feet.

Draco and Ron watched from a distance, neither were sure what to do, neither had seen Neville like this before, they didn't understand what was happening but knew they should stay out of the way for now.

Blaise continued watching Neville in silence, he knew better than to try and speak to Neville, this was a sensitive issue, anything he said at this point would be wrong, Neville needed to come to him. As if reading his mind Neville suddenly fell again to his knees and collapsed against Blaise's chest. Long arms wrapped around him and pulled him close, 'Sssh, it was an accident love, no one meant to hurt him, he got himself, it couldn't have   
been prevented.'  
Neville sniffled and nodded, burying himself furthur in to Blaise.

'Blaise?' asked Draco cautiously. Blaise turned to meet his friends eye, 'Another time Draco.' As curious as he was Draco merely nodded in reply.

The boys fell in to silence as each wondering what was happening on the other side of the wall.  
......

Pansy awoke to the sound of Phoenix song, her eyes were blurry and her head was pounding, she had been flung to the side by the huge tail of the Basilisk and her head had smacked against a large rock causing her to momentarily lose consciousness. She'd worked hard, distracting the Basilisk for Harry, her assistance had allowed him enough space and time to drive the sword deeply into the creatures mouth, but, the last thing she had seen as her vision had gone blank, was the fang of the Basilisk sinking in to the boys arm.

She looked around her and saw that the Weasley girl was still lying, cold and still in the middle of the chamber, Harry was slouched over her, his skin seemed pale and clammy, blood was seeping from his arm, the wound from the fang leaving a jagged line across his flesh. As Pansy struggled to her feet a flash of red and cold caught her eye. The Phoenix was leaning over Harry's arm, and, as she watched, it began to cry.  
.......

'Can you hear that?' whispered Blaise.  
'What?'  
'Sssh, listen.'

The four boys strained to hear, as they listened the sound grew louder, the sound of beautiful music.

'Is that a Phoenix?'  
Before anyone could answer, a burst of golden light filled the tunnel, momentarily blinding its occupants, when they looked again the rock wall was gone, They leapt to their feet and rushed forward in to the light.   
Pansy and Harry were stumbling down the tunnel carrying an unconscious, but alive Ginny between them. Ron surged forward and swept his sister up in to his arms, supporting her behind her head and beneath her knees. Draco ran and gathered Harry in his arms, squeezing tightly and muttering something about idiots and hero complexes. Blaise gathered Pansy in to a big hug before checking her over with the critical eye of someone who cares deeply; 'Pansy your head,are you ok?' Ron's head snapped round at the question and he eyed the brunette with concern, she gave him a small reassuring smile and ran her hand down the back of her head, wincing slightly as she brushed against a tender part. 'i'm ok, let's get out of here, Ginny needs looking at'. Ron looked once more at his sister and pulled her closer to his chest, 'I know but we are trapped, we can't climb a slide, how are we getting out?' as if in answer Fawkes cried out loudly and flicked her tail towards Ron, 'I think she wants you to take it,' whispered Harry. Cautiously Ron reached out and held the tail offered to him, after a second, when nothing happened, Harry had an idea, 'Pansy, Lockheart, grab the tail too.' He somehow knew without asking that the three other boys would want to stay with him. Pansy looked to Ron who nodded for her to put her hand on the tail, she swallowed deeply and placed her hand as close to Ron's as she could without touching, Neville gently led Lockheart to the tail. Wide blue eyes shone with glee when he saw the phoenix, 'What a pretty birdie,' garbled the man, Harry arched a curious eyebrow to Ron who shook his head lightly, signalling that this was not something that could be explained right now. As soon as Lockheart's hand touched  
the tail Fawkes took flight.

As the four boys watched the Phoenix fly their friends to safety each took comfort in knowing she was coming right back for them.


End file.
